Jordan possesses vast reserves of unused high quality oil shale, yet imports almost all its energy needs. This study addressed the evaluation of a non-petroleum liquid fuel derived from oil shale, namely shale oil, relative to the reference petroleum based Diesel fuel. Tests were conducted in a single cylinder, direct injection Diesel engine to compare these fuels in terms of performance, exhaust gaseous emissions and particulate matter (PM) emissions at different but equal rates of energy delivery. The shale oil burned more efficiently than the baseline Diesel fuel and, therefore, resulted in higher engine thermal efficiency. Furthermore, the shale oil resulted in lower unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and less carbon monoxide (CO) than the Diesel fuel. However, the shale oil produced higher levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) at lower load compared to the baseline Diesel fuel. Shale oil generally emitted fewer amounts of PM at lower loads but more PM at higher loads.