A method is described for the gas chromatographic determination of oxygen at the low part per million level in both aqueous systems and nonaqueous systems such as creams, oils, and waxes. This method offers advantages over other popular assay procedures such as the Winkler and polarographic methods. The purging technique developed can be applied to any liquid or solid with a melting point of 75 degrees C or less. Oxygen purged from the sample is passed through a molecular sieve 5A column where it is separated from nitrogen. Peaks obtained are compared to similarly prepared oxygen standards. The method is simple enough to be used routinely and up to 15 samples can be analyzed per day.