The article focuses on the study of oil spill cleanup in an aquatic media by comparing the oil sorption capacities of three polymeric sorbents. Styrene - dodecyl methacrylate – DVB with toluene as porogen (P3) showed a highest removal ability of 5 times its weight. However, key aspect of this research is associated with the retention capacities of the sorbents. The loss in weight measured over time was found to be numerically insignificant for all the three sorbents. Water contact angle for the sorbents i.e., P1, P2, P3 were found to be 113.3°, 107.2° and 97.5° respectively. SEM results confirmed the entrapment of oil between the polymer molecules thereby confirming the phenomenon of sorption. The sorption kinetics of oil over the sorbent surface was followed the pseudo-second order model. The prepared sorbents can be successfully employed for the recovery of oil spills from water sources. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.