Process for treating a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock and a product obtained therefrom

1. 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.

2. The process of claim 1 , further comprising combining an amount of an external diluent with the amount of said synthetic transport diluent and the at least a portion of said residue component to produce said product.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein said fourth API gravity of said product is greater than about 19° and the product has a viscosity of less than about 350 centistokes.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said feedstock has an API gravity of less.than about 20° API.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein said feedstock has a viscosity of greater than about 75,000 centistokes.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein the second API gravity of said residue component is between about −20° and about 10°.

7. The process of claim 6 wherein the second API gravity of said residue component is between about 0° and about 5°.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein said separating comprises separating said feedstock into approximately equal volumes of said residue component and said light component.

9. The process of claim 1 wherein said distillation separates said feedstock into said residue component and said light component having a temperature cutpoint between about 300° C. and about 550° C.

10. The process of claim 1 wherein said first API gravity of said light component is between about 0° and about 30°.

11. The process of claim 1 wherein said first API gravity of said light component is between about 10° and about 20°.

12. The process of claim 1 wherein said third API gravity of said synthetic transport diluent is between about 20° and about 80°.

13. The process of claim 1 wherein said third API gravity of said synthetic transport diluent is at least about 30°.

14. The process of claim 1 wherein said synthetic transport diluent has a viscosity of less than about 5 centistokes.

15. The process of claim 1 wherein said separating by distillation comprises at least one process selected from the group consisting of atmospheric distillation and vacuum distillation.

16. The process of claim 1 wherein said separating comprises at least one further process selected from the group consisting of solvent extraction, solvent deasphalting, and visbreaking.

17. The process of claim 1 wherein said treating comprises at least one further process selected from the group consisting of hydrotreating, thermal conversion, and catalytic cracking.

18. The process of claim 1 wherein the feedstock comprises asphaltenes and wherein said separating further comprises concentrating said asphaltenes in said residue component.

19. The process of claim 18 wherein concentrating said asphaltenes in said residue component comprises distilling said feedstock such that a quality associated with said asphaltenes is substantially maintained.

20. The process of claim 1 wherein said feedstock comprises nickel and vanadium and wherein said separating further comprises concentrating said nickel and vanadium in said residue component.

21. The process of claim 1 further comprising diverting a diverted portion of said residue component for use other than in combining with said synthetic transport diluent to produce said product.

22. The process of claim 21 wherein said diverting comprises diverting said diverted portion of said residue component for use in generating energy by combustion of said diverted portion of said residue component.

23. The process of claim 21 wherein said diverting comprises diverting said diverted portion of said residue component for gasification of said diverted portion of said residue component.

24. The process of claim 21 wherein said treating comprises a hydrogen addition process and wherein said diverting comprises diverting said diverted portion of said residue component for generating hydrogen from said diverted portion of said residue component for use in said hydrogen addition process.

25. The process of claim 21 wherein said diverting comprises concentrating said diverted portion of said residue component to produce a concentrated residue component and a further light component.

26. The process of claim 25 wherein said further light component is included in said product.

27. The process of claim 25 wherein said further light component is combined with said light component.

28. The process of claim 1 wherein said feedstock comprises an admixed component operable to remove sediment and water from said feedstock prior to said separating, and wherein said separating further comprises recovering said admixed component from said feedstock for reuse.

29. The process of claim 1 wherein said fourth API gravity of said product is greater than about 19° and the product has a viscosity of less than about 350 centistokes.