The mechanisms and kinetics of O( 3 P, 1 D) + OCS(X 1 Σ + ) reactions have been studied by the high-level G2M(CC2) and CCSD(T)/6-311+G(3df)// B3LYP/6-311+G(3df) methods in conjunction with the transition-state theory and variational Rice−Ramsperger−Kassel−Marcus theory calculations. The result shows that the triplet surface proceeds directly by abstraction and substitution channels to produce SO( 3 P) + CO(X 1 Σ + ) and S( 3 P) + CO 2 (X 1 Σ g + ) by passing the barriers of 7.6 and 9.1 kcal•mol −1 at the G2M(CC2)//B3LYP/6-311+G(3df) level, respectively, while two stable intermediates, LM1 (OSCO 1 ) and LM2 (SC(O)O 1 ), are formed barrierlessly from O( 1 D) + OCS(X 1 Σ + ) in the singlet surface, which lie at −40.5 and −50.1 kcal•mol −1 relative to O( 3 P) + OCS(X 1 Σ + ) reactants and decompose to CO(X 1 Σ + ) + SO(a 1 Δ) and S( 1 D) + CO 2 (X 1 Σ g + ). LM1 and LM2 may also be produced by singlet−triplet surface crossings via MSX1 and MSX2; the predicted total rate constant for the O( 3 P) + OCS(X 1 Σ + ) reaction including the crossings, 9.2 × 10 −11 exp(−5.18 kcal•mol −1 /RT) cm 3 molecule −1 s −1 , is in good agreement with available experimental data. The branching ratio of the CO 2 product channel, 0.22− 0.32, between 1200 and 1600 K, is also in excellent agreement with the value of 0.2−0.3 measured by Isshiki et al.