diff --git a/ci/requirements-2.7.pip b/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
index 9bc533110cea3..54596ad2a8169 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
+++ b/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
@@ -2,5 +2,6 @@ blosc
 httplib2
 google-api-python-client == 1.2
 python-gflags == 2.0
+oauth2client == 1.5.0
 pathlib
 py
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.4.pip b/ci/requirements-3.4.pip
index 62be867437af1..55986a0220bf0 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.4.pip
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.4.pip
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ python-dateutil==2.2
 blosc
 httplib2
 google-api-python-client
+oauth2client
diff --git a/doc/source/install.rst b/doc/source/install.rst
index 11b9115aa9c81..c1950ee7bf76c 100644
--- a/doc/source/install.rst
+++ b/doc/source/install.rst
@@ -267,9 +267,11 @@ Optional Dependencies
   <http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/software/xsel/>`__, or `xclip
   <http://sourceforge.net/projects/xclip/>`__: necessary to use
   :func:`~pandas.io.clipboard.read_clipboard`. Most package managers on Linux distributions will have ``xclip`` and/or ``xsel`` immediately available for installation.
-* Google's `python-gflags <http://code.google.com/p/python-gflags/>`__
-  and `google-api-python-client <http://github.com/google/google-api-python-client>`__: Needed for :mod:`~pandas.io.gbq`
-* `httplib2 <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/httplib2>`__: Needed for :mod:`~pandas.io.gbq`
+* Google's `python-gflags <http://code.google.com/p/python-gflags/>`__ ,
+  `oauth2client <https://github.com/google/oauth2client>`__ ,
+  `httplib2 <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/httplib2>`__
+  and `google-api-python-client <http://github.com/google/google-api-python-client>`__
+  : Needed for :mod:`~pandas.io.gbq`
 * One of the following combinations of libraries is needed to use the
   top-level :func:`~pandas.io.html.read_html` function:
 
diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.0.txt
index 90ded17286c9f..acd9533165c6d 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.18.0.txt
@@ -1271,3 +1271,4 @@ Bug Fixes
 - Bug when specifying a UTC ``DatetimeIndex`` by setting ``utc=True`` in ``.to_datetime`` (:issue:`11934`)
 - Bug when increasing the buffer size of CSV reader in ``read_csv`` (:issue:`12494`)
 - Bug when setting columns of a ``DataFrame`` with duplicate column names (:issue:`12344`)
+- Resolve ImportError in ``read_gbq`` which appears with oauthclient >= 2.0.0 (:issue:`12572`)
diff --git a/pandas/io/gbq.py b/pandas/io/gbq.py
index c7481a953e47b..e706434f29dc5 100644
--- a/pandas/io/gbq.py
+++ b/pandas/io/gbq.py
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ def _test_google_api_imports():
         from apiclient.errors import HttpError  # noqa
         from oauth2client.client import AccessTokenRefreshError  # noqa
         from oauth2client.client import OAuth2WebServerFlow  # noqa
-        from oauth2client.client import SignedJwtAssertionCredentials  # noqa
         from oauth2client.file import Storage  # noqa
         from oauth2client.tools import run_flow, argparser  # noqa
     except ImportError as e:
@@ -179,7 +178,30 @@ def get_user_account_credentials(self):
         return credentials
 
     def get_service_account_credentials(self):
-        from oauth2client.client import SignedJwtAssertionCredentials
+        # Bug fix for https://github.com/pydata/pandas/issues/12572
+        # We need to know that a supported version of oauth2client is installed
+        # Test that either of the following is installed:
+        # - SignedJwtAssertionCredentials from oauth2client.client
+        # - ServiceAccountCredentials from oauth2client.service_account
+        # SignedJwtAssertionCredentials is available in oauthclient < 2.0.0
+        # ServiceAccountCredentials is available in oauthclient >= 2.0.0
+        oauth2client_v1 = True
+        oauth2client_v2 = True
+
+        try:
+            from oauth2client.client import SignedJwtAssertionCredentials
+        except ImportError:
+            oauth2client_v1 = False
+
+        try:
+            from oauth2client.service_account import ServiceAccountCredentials
+        except ImportError:
+            oauth2client_v2 = False
+
+        if not oauth2client_v1 and not oauth2client_v2:
+            raise ImportError("Missing oauth2client required for BigQuery "
+                              "service account support")
+
         from os.path import isfile
 
         try:
@@ -197,11 +219,16 @@ def get_service_account_credentials(self):
                 json_key['private_key'] = bytes(
                     json_key['private_key'], 'UTF-8')
 
-            return SignedJwtAssertionCredentials(
-                json_key['client_email'],
-                json_key['private_key'],
-                self.scope,
-            )
+            if oauth2client_v1:
+                return SignedJwtAssertionCredentials(
+                    json_key['client_email'],
+                    json_key['private_key'],
+                    self.scope,
+                )
+            else:
+                return ServiceAccountCredentials.from_json_keyfile_dict(
+                    json_key,
+                    self.scope)
         except (KeyError, ValueError, TypeError, AttributeError):
             raise InvalidPrivateKeyFormat(
                 "Private key is missing or invalid. It should be service "
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_gbq.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_gbq.py
index 5a1c2d63af365..865b7e8d689c0 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_gbq.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_gbq.py
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@ def _test_imports():
 
             from oauth2client.client import OAuth2WebServerFlow  # noqa
             from oauth2client.client import AccessTokenRefreshError  # noqa
-            from oauth2client.client import SignedJwtAssertionCredentials  # noqa
 
             from oauth2client.file import Storage  # noqa
             from oauth2client.tools import run_flow  # noqa
@@ -115,6 +114,30 @@ def _test_imports():
         raise ImportError(
             "pandas requires httplib2 for Google BigQuery support")
 
+    # Bug fix for https://github.com/pydata/pandas/issues/12572
+    # We need to know that a supported version of oauth2client is installed
+    # Test that either of the following is installed:
+    # - SignedJwtAssertionCredentials from oauth2client.client
+    # - ServiceAccountCredentials from oauth2client.service_account
+    # SignedJwtAssertionCredentials is available in oauthclient < 2.0.0
+    # ServiceAccountCredentials is available in oauthclient >= 2.0.0
+    oauth2client_v1 = True
+    oauth2client_v2 = True
+
+    try:
+        from oauth2client.client import SignedJwtAssertionCredentials  # noqa
+    except ImportError:
+        oauth2client_v1 = False
+
+    try:
+        from oauth2client.service_account import ServiceAccountCredentials  # noqa
+    except ImportError:
+        oauth2client_v2 = False
+
+    if not oauth2client_v1 and not oauth2client_v2:
+        raise ImportError("Missing oauth2client required for BigQuery "
+                          "service account support")
+
 
 def test_requirements():
     try: