Patent ID: 8002968

Claim:
A process for treating a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, the process comprising: separating the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock by distillation into a residue component and a light component, said light component having a first API gravity and said residue component including substantially all asphaltenes of the feedstock and having a second API gravity, the first API gravity being higher than the second API gravity; treating at least a portion of said light component by hydrocracking to produce a synthetic transport diluent having a third API gravity, the third API gravity being higher than the first API gravity; and combining an amount of said synthetic transport diluent with an amount of said residue component to produce a product including the asphaltenes from the amount of said residue component, which meets applicable criteria for pipeline transport and has a fourth API gravity, the fourth API gravity being less than the third API gravity and greater than the second API gravity.