In this work, hydrogenation of aromatic compounds in light gas oil derived from Athabasca bitumen was carried out using a single- and two-stage hydrotreating processes. Experiments were performed in a trickle-bed reactor using two catalysts namely NiMo/Al2O3 and NiW/Al2O3. NiMo/Al2O3 was used in the first stage for nitrogen and sulphur containing heteroatoms removal whereas NiW/Al2O3 was used in the second stage for saturation of the aromatic rings in the hydrocarbon species. Temperature and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) were varied from 350-390 degrees C and 1.0-1.5 h(-1), respectively, while pressure was maintained constant at 11.0 MPa for all experiments. Results from single-stage were compared with those from two-stage process on the basis of reaction time. Kinetic analysis of the single-stage hydrotreating process showed that HDA and HDS activities were retarded by the presence of hydrogen sulphide that is produced as a by-product of the HDS process. However, with inter-stage removal of hydrogen sulphicle in the two-stage process, significant improvement of the HDA and HDS activities were observed.