a. preheating the atmospheric residue to a temperature in the range of 440° to 520° C. to obtain a hydrocarbon stream in which thermal cracking has been initiated;

b. subjecting the hydrocarbon stream in which thermal cracking has been initiated thus obtained in step (a) to a first delayed coking step in a first coking column to form cracked hydrocarbon vapors and easily cokable material and separating the easily cokable material from the cracked hydrocarbon vapors as solid coke;

c. adding quench stream to the cracked hydrocarbon vapors obtained in step (b) in a quench column to obtain a condensate containing heavier hydrocarbon fraction and vapors containing lighter hydrocarbon fractions;

d. separating the vapor containing lighter hydrocarbon fractions into at least a gas component and a hydrocarbon fraction having true boiling point in the range of 380° C. to 480° C. in a first distillation column;

e. mixing the condensate obtained in the step (c), the hydrocarbon fraction having boiling point in the range of 380° C. to 480° C. thus obtained in step (d) and optionally clarified oil (CLO) obtained from FCC process and/or thermal tars and/or aromatic extract to obtain a mixture having aromatics content greater than or equal to 60% and average aromatic ring per molecule in the range of 3 to 8;

f. subjecting the mixture thus obtained in step (e) to a temperature in the range of 460° C. to 540° C. in a preheater in presence of steam to obtain a hydrocarbon stream in which thermal cracking has been initiated; and

g. subjecting the hydrocarbon stream in which thermal cracking has been initiated thus obtained in step (f) to a second delayed coking step in a second coking column thereby obtaining crystalline petroleum coke having needle structure and a cracked hydrocarbon product mixture and separating the crystalline petroleum coke having needle structures.