Sustainable development, as a global reform that takes into account economic, social and environmental aspects, requires a focus on energy activities, especially those of the oil industry, as they usually have varying degrees of impact on the three aspects mentioned. We, therefore, explore the nexus between sustainable development and oil booms based on data from 38 countries and seven specific countries (China, the USA, Russia, Norway, Brazil, Libya and Kuwait) between 1990 and 2019. First of all, the Bai-Perron tests confirm that structural changes in the oil production growth are more frequent, while the sustainable development index growth is relatively more stable. Then, we examine the performance of this nexus in different subperiods using the panel vector autoregression models and observe significant associations only in the subperiod 2012 to 2019. At last, we find that the Granger causalities and long-run dynamic relationships between sustainable development and oil booms are considerably different across economies in the vector autoregression estimations for each of the seven countries. In a word, the effect of oil production on sustainable development could be positive or negative over time and across economies, and there is no consistent conclusion, and vice versa. Thus, in the sustainable development practice and the green transformation of the oil industry, targeted strategies should be adopted according to the current development stage and the realistic background of specific objects.