An exhaustive review of the scientific literature on kinetic modeling of heavy petroleum fraction hydrocracking is reported in this paper. Kinetic models for hydrocracking of model compounds were not analyzed. The review includes models based on the lumping technique, continuous mixtures, structure oriented lumping, and single event models. Experimental data, reaction networks, main characteristics of kinetic approaches, and kinetic parameter values are also reported. In some cases when detailed experimental data were available, kinetic parameters were re-estimated and some differences were found in comparison with original reported values. One representative model of each kinetic approach was selected, and parameter estimation was done with reported experimental values in order to establish the capability and accuracy in the prediction of conversion and product yields. Advantages and disadvantages of the models are discussed in terms of their capability to predict detailed product composition, difficulty for parameter estimation, dependency of rate coefficient with feed properties, and required experimental data. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.