Derivatographic analysis of specimens from a number of areas of Tatarstan oil fields has shown that in alcohol-benzene resins of residual and produced oils there are no differences in the mass fraction of polycyclic nuclei and peripheral substituents; asphaltenes of residual crude oils differ from the asphaltenes of produced oils in a smaller size of the polyarene nucleus and its higher degree of substitution. On the basis of IR spectroscopy data it has been established that the total content of structural fragments characteristic of acids, ketones, amides, phenols and sulphoxides in an average molecule decreases in the following order: alcohol-benzene resins of residual crude oils - alcohol-benzene resins of produced crude oils - asphaltenes of residual crude oils - asphaltenes of produced crude oils; the molecular weight increases mainly in the same order. Condensed structural blocks containing a small number of heterofunctional substituents are capable of forming three-dimensionally ordered pack macroparticles of asphaltenes through pi-pi interaction. This interaction is difficult in blocks containing heterosubstituents in greater quantity, and they are therefore a component part of alcohol-benzene resins, for which the formation of polyassociates is characteristic.