Ethyl oleate (EO), a fatty acid ethyl ester, is a potential bio-diesel fuel and may be produced from the esterification of oleic acid and ethanol. The process is commercially attractive since oleic acid may be readily obtained from the hydrolysis of de-gummed oil (e.g. palm, olive, and rapeseed oils) with ethanol from the fermentation of sugar and wheat industry by-products. In view of the paucity of information on the reaction, our objective was to procure the chemical equilibrium parameters over Amberlyst 15 ion-exchange catalyst. Computer simulation (AspenPlus 121) showed that ethyl acetate (EA) may be justifiably added as an entrainer to improve dewatering of the azeotropic reaction mixture during subsequent reactive distillation. Consequently, chemical equilibrium runs were carried out with and without the EA over a 2-week period in thermostated silicon oil-bath at temperatures between 323-343 K. Fluid composition was measured on an automated HPLC system. Data analysis revealed that the equilibrium constant in the absence of EA increased with increased ethanol:oleic acid ratio (in the feed) attaining a maximum (K=2.6 at ) at equimolar feed composition and thereafter dropped to a value of about 0.2 at reactant ratio of 5 and beyond. Interestingly, the addition of equimolar EA essentially led to a 4 to 6-fold improvement in K values depending on the temperature. Indeed, the endothermic heat of reaction, ΔHrxn in the presence and absence of EA were 52.56 and 86.47 kJ mol-1 respectively with accompanying entropy change, ΔSrxn of 170.35 and 260.87 J mol-1.