North America has enjoyed a crude oil revolution the latter part of the last decade with the proliferation of shale gas and oil production, leading to increased profit margins and lower operating costs for refiners. Recent studies show that shale gas and oil reserves in Latin America to be some of the largest in the world, positioning the region as a potential global shale gas and oil superpower. As example, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Argentina holds the world’s fourth largest shale oil reserve and Venezuela the seventh largest. Processing shale oils, especially when mixed with the more traditional heavy oil crude slate that makes up much of the current South American refinery diet, brings a complex set of processing challenges in several areas of the refinery such as desalters, tank farm management, corrosion and fouling control, product yield, and waste water treatment plant operations. This paper will highlight the lessons learned over the last decade from processing shale oils in North America, compare and contrast North American and Latin American shale oils, show actual challenges that refineries are already facing in South America and discuss how to successfully increase shale oil in the Latin American refinery diet