The fuser roll in high-speed xerographic printers is typically coated with a silicon-based oil to facilitate clean splitting of the fused image and paper as it exits the fusing nip. If oil uptake by paper is excessive, the fuser roll will become insufficiently coated with oil. Consequently, both image quality and fuser roll life will be negatively impacted. A variety of commercial papers were characterized and evaluated for their oil uptake performance. Using partial least-squares regression, key paper properties correlated with oil uptake were identified. Surface energy of paper was found to have the strongest correlation with oil uptake. Furthermore, based on contact mechanic theories, a contact area index (CI) was used to describe the degree of contact between paper and the fuser roll at the nip. A positive correlation between oil uptake and CI suggests that roughness and stiffness also have significant influences on oil uptake.