Disclosed is a process for the upgrading and demetallizing of heavy oils
and bitumens. A crude heavy oil and/or bitumen feed is supplied to a
solvent extraction process 104 wherein DAO and asphaltenes are separated.
The DAO is supplied to an FCC unit 106 having a low conversion activity
catalyst for the removal of metals contained therein. The demetallized
distillate fraction is supplied to a hydrotreater 110 for upgrading and
collected as a synthetic crude product stream. The asphaltene fraction
can be supplied to a gasifier 108 for the recovery of power, steam and
hydrogen, which can be supplied to the hydrotreater 110 or otherwise
within the process or exported. An optional coker 234 can be used to
convert excess asphaltenes and/or decant oil to naphtha, distillate and
gas oil, which can be supplied to the hydrotreater 220.