The vacuum resid of a Canadian bitumen and the resid of its severely cracked product were separated into 16 and 11 fractions, respectively, by supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation with pentane, followed by a comprehensive analysis of the chemical and physical properties of the resulting fractions. Thus, the effect of thermal conversion could be analyzed in detail. Characterization of the fractions included elemental analysis, density and viscosity/temperature relationship, Conradson carbon residue (CCR), molecular weight and distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), boiling point curves by simulated gas chromatography (GC) up to 750 °C, saturates, aromatics, resins, and C7 asphaltenes (SARA), C5 asphaltenes, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). Moreover, the solubility parameters of selected fractions were determined from the phase equilibria of the oil fraction, propane or isobutane mixtures in a high-pressure PVT cell. The solubility parameter distribution of the C5 asp...