Pence worked with oil for long time (8)

I believe the answer is:

pliocene

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'long time' is the definition.
'Pliocene' can be an answer for 'time' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'long' bit.

'pence worked with oil' is the wordplay.
'worked with' indicates an anagram.
'pence' anagrammed with 'oil' gives 'PLIOCENE'.

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pliocene that I've seen before include "Early epoch" , "Epoch when first hominids arose; lone epic (anag.)" , "Period" , "from years ago" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.

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