The aim of this work is to establish the energetic potential of oil palm shells, when transformed through gasification, using air as oxidation agent, in a downdraft gasifier. In this paper, the effect of the temperature inside the reactor and the equivalence ratio ER in the produced gas composition and heating value were studied. It was noticed that in the range of ER between 0.2 and 0.3 the heating value and the gas production in the process increased with the quantity of air supplied to the gasifier, obtaining fuel gases with an average heating value of almost 4.03 MJ/m3. This value is in the acceptable range for fuel gases obtained through gasification with air and shows the energetic potential of oil palm shells. In general, it is possible to obtain, under the described conditions, 6.5 MJ of energy per kilogram of biomass gasified, that could be used in different applications for the production of thermal energy or electricity.