Oil perhaps to be seen from ocean liner? (8)
I believe the answer is:
seascape
'oil' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ocean liner?' is the wordplay.
'ocean' becomes 'sea' (synonyms).
'liner?' becomes 'scape' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sea'+'scape'='SEASCAPE'
'perhaps to be seen from' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for seascape that I've seen before include "Ocean picture" , "Painting genre" , "Main work" , "work of art" , "view of the Med perhaps" .)