PERM’s Story

PERM Inc.’s story begins in 1994 in Calgary, Alberta. Dr. Apostolos Kantzas founded PERM Inc. as a Special Core Analysis and R&D Laboratory for the oil and gas industry. PERM is also known as the Tomographic Imaging and Porous Media Laboratory (TIPM Lab), and was located on the University of Calgary campus. In 2012, PERM outgrew the space at the University of Calgary and moved into a laboratory off-campus.

PERM specializes in conducting Special Core Analysis & Enhanced Oil Recovery Studies on core for the oil & gas industry. Whether it is doing full diameter corefloods at high pressures and temperatures or conducting complex relative permeability measurements while scanning, PERM routinely takes on complex projects.

PERM has worked with virtually all the major oil companies operating in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (both domestic and international) and has also worked on a variety of reservoirs from around the world.

More About PERM

PERM became known for utilizing non-invasive tools and sensors such as CT Scanners and NMRs, to help provide additional data and aid in understanding what is happening within the core during core experiments.

PERM has a lot of experience with heavy oil and bitumen (both oilsands and carbonates), as well as other unconventional reservoirs.

What makes PERM Inc. different than other core analysis companies?

PERM strives to make improvements and push the boundaries of what is possible.  PERM exists to tackle the hard problems other laboratories are unable to. For this reason, we have created a multidisciplinary team with skills ranging from Chemical & Petroleum Engineering to Geology, and everything in between. All of our staff hold PhD or MSc degrees, and they are routinely tasked with finding solutions to complex problems.

Areas of Expertise

Advanced / Special Core Analysis (SCAL)
Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
CT Scanning & Magnetic Resonance
Corefloods (Full Diameter, High Pressure, High Temperature)

Unleashing reservoir potential with Special Core Analysis and Enhanced Oil Recovery.

From marginal to profitable through physics and technology. 

Meet Our Team

Apostolos Kantzas, PhD, P.Eng.
Apostolos Kantzas, PhD, P.Eng.President & CEO
Dr. Kantzas founded the Tomographic Imaging & Porous Media Laboratory “TIPM Lab” (aka PERM Inc.) in 1994. A professor from the University of Calgary, Dr. Kantzas has tremendous experience in leading advanced research of porous media, primarily dealing with petroleum reservoir engineering issues. He is an expert in Tomographic Imaging, Porous Media Physics and Magnetic Resonance Sensor Technology. Dr. Kantzas currently leads an Industrial Research Chair in Fundamentals of Unconventional Resources (FUR).
Sajjad Esmaeili, PhD.
Sajjad Esmaeili, PhD.Technical Operations Manager
Dr. Esmaeili completed his Ph.D. degree in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary. His general research interest lies in the area of relative permeability, fluid flow in porous media, enhanced oil recovery, thermodynamics, and reservoir simulation. He collaborates with PERM Inc. Instruments to design and construct various Petroleum Engineering laboratory apparatuses.
Jon Bryan, PhD, P.Eng.
Jon Bryan, PhD, P.Eng.Technology Consultant
Dr. Bryan did his MSc and PhD degrees at the University of Calgary under Dr. Kantzas’ supervision. He has been a frequent collaborator in the Canada Research Chair and in Dr. Kantzas’ NSERC Chair in Uncoventional Resources. Jon has expertise in petrophysics and enhanced oil recovery, and Magnetic Resonance.
Pramod D. Patil, PhD
Pramod D. Patil, PhDInternational Collaborator
Dr. Patil is currently the Lead Consultant and Founder of Rock-Oil Consulting Group. He completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Previously, Dr. Patil worked as the Technical Leader for the O&G Group at the Dow Chemical Company. He has 15 years of experience in IOR/EOR field piloting, laboratory evaluations, reservoir simulations, and oilfield chemicals. Furthermore, Dr. Patil has led and supported more than 15 IOR/EOR field pilots (onshore/offshore) across many geographies such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Canada, and the USA. He has also worked on various technologies such as CO2 foam EOR, surfactant-induced wettability alteration to improve waterflood, foam-assisted steam flood, solvent-assisted EOR, and chemical EOR. In addition to his experience, Dr. Patil has published more than 20 journal publications, 22 conference papers, and more than 10 patent applications.