H-1 & C-13 NMR experiments were conducted to investigate the structural parameters of asphaltene molecules derived from Algerian Hassi Messaoud oil field. By coupling known aromatic and aliphatic analyses with alpha carbon abundance evaluation, the asphaltene of this field was found to contain approximately seven condense aromatic rings attached with short aliphatic chains of 4-6 carbons. The spectral analysis also suggests the aromatic fragments to contain an average of one pendant aliphatic chain per hexagon. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.