Carbon molecular sieves (CMS) have become an interesting area of adsorption due to their microporous nature and favourable separation factor on size and shape selectively basis for many gaseous systems. In this work, CMS were prepared from locally available oil palm shell by thermal treatment of carbonization followed by steam activation, then benzene deposition. The carbonization of dried palm shell at 900°C for 1 hr followed by steam activation at 30-420 min produced activated carbons with various degrees of burn-off. The highest micropore surface area and micropore volume of the activated samples were obtained at 53.2% burn-off. This sample was found suitable to be used as precursor for CMSs production in the deposition step. Subsequent benzene deposition onto activated samples at temperatures from 600°C-900°C from various benzene concentrations resulted in a series of CMS with different O₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ kinetic selectivities.