Marine oil shale from the Sultani mine was characterized. The 13C NMR indicated that the shale is highly aliphatic, and the concentration of carbonyl carbon is small. The shale was pyrolysed to different final temperatures in the range 360–540 °C under N2 and the shale oils produced characterized by utilization parameters (API, heating value, boiling point distribution) and by chemical properties (1H-NMR and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry GC–MS) as a function of final pyrolysis temperature. Previous studies have only investigated the utilization properties of marine-shale oil at one temperature. 1H-NMR implied that the oil produced at all temperatures was highly aliphatic. GC/MS for the oil indicated the presence of long chain hydrocarbons (C11-C32), both normal and branched, some substituted benzenes, and high concentrations of sulfur compounds, mainly substituted thiophenes with same benzothiophenes.