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Asphaltene precipitation and subsequent deposition is a potential problem in oil production because the significant costs for wellbore cleaning and the associated production loss. To better understand the mechanisms by which asphaltenes precipitate and deposit, in this work we present experimental evidence that supports the idea that precipitation and aggregation of asphaltenes is a multi-step process, where the former is driven primarily by thermodynamics whereas the latter is driven by kinetics. Under this multi-step mechanism, asphaltene precipitation is a fully reversible process. On the other hand, from the precipitated phase, subsequent aggregation and aging leads to the formation of more solid-like structures. Furthermore, we also present experimental results that suggest that the currently available commercial technologies to detect asphaltene precipitation (i.e. NIR spectroscopy and …