Essential Oils was released during the period in which Midnight Oil had broken up in the wake of lead singer Peter Garrett focusing on his political career.

The band reformed in 2016, embarked on concert tours (2017, 2019, 2022) and released two further studio albums, The Makarrata Project (2020) and Resist (2022).

Given its comprehensive 36-song track list, the two-disc Essential Oils effectively supplants Midnight Oil's previous greatest-hits compilation, the one-disc, 18-track album 20,000 Watt R.S.L.

(The Flat Chat tracks that do not appear on Essential Oils are "Section 5 (Bus to Bondi)", "Tell Me the Truth", "Stand in Line", "Pictures", "Written in the Heart" and "Mosquito March".)

Essential Oils contains liner notes by American music journalist David Fricke.