ABSTRACT
The petroleum rening industry is entering into a signicant era due to the depletion of light petroleum and an increase in the heavy or extra heavy crude oil exploration and production. Most of the light crude oil sources are almost extinguished, and exploration is turning to the heavy or extra heavy oil. This is the case particularly in Mexico, where the commercial production of light crude oils is nearly ended, and exploration and production of heavy and extra heavy crude oils is increasing year by year. To process these crudes, the development and use of technologies for hydroprocessing of heavy oils has been indolent for the past few years mainly due to the availability of light, sweet crudes all over the world. As the crude oil quality decreases, reneries have been under pressure to meet the market demand for high quality fuels because heavy crudes have such a low yield of light fractions while, at the same time, the yield of bottom of the barrel (residue) is higher. Therefore, it is foreseen that some reneries in the near future will increasingly replace light crudes with heavy or extra heavy crude oils, particularly in countries like Canada, Venezuela, and Mexico.
