A high performance liquid chromatography method has been developed for the separation of olefin, saturate, and aromatic hydrocarbons found in high-boiling distillates and residues of shale oil and in whole shale oils. The dual-column chromatographic system uses silica gel in one column and silica gel coated with silver nitrate in a second column. Separated fractions are analyzed by infrared and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry to demonstrate the validity of the separation. The time required for a separation is about 2 h. The separations are repeatable, and recovery of material after separation is generally better than 80%. The olefin, saturate, and aromatic fractions obtained from a separation are suitable for further analysis.