This study deals with structural characterization of oil shale obtained from the township of Mengen in Bolu, Turkey by means of proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, FTIR spectrometry, XRF spectrometry and thermogravimetric analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis was employed to investigate pyrolysis of the oil shale samples at the heating rates of 5, 20, 40A degrees C/min and the Coats and Redfern kinetic model to investigate their pyrolysis kinetics.