Objective The aim is to reduce the cost of crude oil and gasoline and diesel production, in order to adapt to the rapid development of the refining industry and the shrinking of the gasoline and diesel market and the overcapacity of the refining industry caused by the adjustment of the energy industry structure.

Methods Using the Basra heavy crude oil as raw material, the process of intermittent production of asphalt by straight distillation process was added. By adjusting the inventory of crude oil, semi-finished products, and finished products, the continuous and stable operation of the distillation-residual oil hydrogenation-catalysis and distillation-coking processes was ensured.

Results After blending 20 wt% Basra heavy crude oil with other inferior crude oil, qualified AH-70(A) grade asphalt was produced by straight distillation process. During the trial refining, the secondary dilution tank bottom crude oil with an iron mass fraction of 155 μg/g was blended, and the blending mass fraction was 24%. The mass fraction of nickel and vanadium in the residue hydrogenation raw material was only 71.9 μg/g while controlling the atmospheric residue discharge.

Conclusions Using Basra heavy crude oil as raw material, asphalt products with good performance can be produced by straight distillation process. The main difficulties in processing are high residue oil yield and high heavy metal content. For a single set of large-scale distillation unit, the processing method of intermittent blending can be adopted, and the influence on residue oil hydrogenation catalyst can be reduced by controlling the atmospheric residue discharge.