A sample of vacuum residue (VR) was evaluated for its physical and chemical properties. The VR was separated into sixteen fractions according to molecular size distribution on preparative gel permeation chromatography (GPC) columns. Elemental analysis including heteroatoms (N, S) and metal (Ni, V) was carried out on fractions 1 through 9. Molecular weight distribution and number average molecular weight (Mn) were obtained by analytical GPC for fractions 1 through 11. Forty percent of the VR contains high molecular weight materials (i.e., materials with molecular weights ranging from 1170 to 3920) and 64.3% total vanadium, 62.5% total nickel, 34.1% total sulphur, and 41.6% total nitrogen.