[2] The concept was first developed by Amitav Ghosh to classify literature about the petroleum industry and the impact of oil on society.
[4][5] Imre Szeman in a 2012 editorial introduction to a special edition of the American Book Review proposed a slightly larger scope: all works that explore "the important role played by oil in contemporary society.
"[2][5] Works of petrofiction proliferated in the 2000s and 2010s, along with a growing critical focus, as a result of concerns about climate change and peak oil.
[8] This genre has been particularly important in non-Western literature, exploring how encounters with oil are entangled with other issues in the Global South.
[1] Some critics have connected the role of petrofiction to the emergence of climate fiction, in that both are evaluating and addressing the concerns brought on by the Anthropocene.