Why is specific heat capacity of water greater than oil?

Answer 1

Heat capacity reflects the nature of the compounds ability to be risen by 1 degree of a temperature unit (usually expressed in Kelvin). The higher heat capacity you have the more heat you can then transfer.

The difference between oil and water is that water has stronger intermolecular bonds thus molecules interact with each other more readily when compared to non polar compounds such as oil (where particles behave independently). Thus waters high heat capacity reflects on its nature of having higher interaction between particles when compared to oil.