A study of correlation, path coefficient analysis and heritablity for some agronomic characters of oil palm was investigated during February 1998 to January 2002. The oil palm population used in this experiment was derived from F1 tenera hybrids which were collected from various oil palm plantations in Southern Thailand. One good performance bunch (i.e., big bunch, thin shell) was selected from each plantation and four to six seeds per selected bunch were used for cultivation. One thousand thirty eight plants were grown at Klong Hoi Khong Research Station, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, in 1989. Forty five palms consisted of Dura, Tenera and Pisifera types with 18, 18 and 9 plants respectively were selected by randomization and tagged for investigation. The oil palm bunch yield and yield component characters were observed from individual palm for 4 years (February 1998 to January 2002). The bunch composition characters were analysed from a single bunch of each palm, sampled between June to October 1999. The results showed that in F2 plants of oil palm, the correlation and the path coefficient between characters relating to oil yield and %oil/bunch varied according to oil palm types (Dura, Tenera and Pisifera). In Dura and Tenera palms, the characters which gave highly positive correlation with a large direct and indirect positive effects on oil yield and %oil/bunch were total bunch weight, %oil/bunch, %fruit/bunch and %oil/fruit. In case of Pisifera palms, the characters which gave highly positive correlation with a large direct and indirect positive effects on oil yield and %oil/bunch were total bunch weight, number of bunches, single bunch weight, %oil/bunch and %fruit/bunch. However, from all investigated characters in F2 plants, only %mesocarp/fruit, %oil/fruit and %fruit/bunch showed the high values of broad sense heritabilities.
