The purpose of the present work was to prepare a syncrude of total nitrogen content comparable to that of an NPC-type syncrude produced earlier by catalytically hydrogenating the total in situ crude shale oil in one step, and to determine the amounts and types of nitrogen compounds remaining the finished syncrude. Yields of products, properties of the finished syncrude, and amounts and types of nitrogen compounds remaining in the one step syncrude are compared with those of a multistep syncrude prepared by an NPC type process.