Fusing plays a vital role in achieving high resolution print quality in high-speed digital xerographic printing. The fuser roll is typically coated with a release agent so as to facilitate clean splitting of the fused image and paper as it exits the fusing nip. If oil uptake by paper is excessive, a fuser oil depletion problem will develop with time and the fuser roll will become insufficiently coated with oil. In this study, the oil uptake performance of a wide range of commercial papers was evaluated using a prototype highspeed xerographic fuser. The key paper properties that control oil uptake are identified using a partial least squares regression model. A mechanistic view of how these paper properties interact to affect oil uptake is explored in terms of the wetting of oil on paper and in terms of a contact area index (CI). Surface free energy of paper was found to be the dominant property in describing the wetting of oil on paper. CI, based on theory from contact mechanics, is used to describe the degree of contact between paper and the fuser roll at the nip. A positive correlation between CI and oil uptake suggests that roughness and bending stiffness have significant influences on oil uptake.