This paper presents a finite element methods to simulate creep buckling phenomenon of petroleum furnace tube under external pressure with the petroleum furnace tube subjected to high temperature loading as the research object. In this paper the furnace tube is predigested as a finite-length cylindrical shell simply supported at both ends. Based on creep aging theory, considering the effect of temperature and service time on the material performance of petroleum furnace tube, the creep buckling ultimate load is acquired from eigenvalue buckling analysis by selecting linear perturbation buckling step. Parametric analyses and buckling analysis are conducted to investigate the effect of length-radius ratio, radius-thickness ratio and temperature on the creep buckling ultimate load of cylindrical shell. Finally, the finite element predictions are obtained and are compared with Mises results. It is found that they are in good agreement, validating the finite element simulation.