About Us

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)

Our Company Mission

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

PERM's Philosophy

From marginal to profitable through physics and technology.

Meet Our Team

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.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.

Feng Li, PhD.Chemical Services Manager

Dr. Li earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. He has over 15 years of professional experience with product R&D in new technologies and process development, design, simulation, and improvement. Additionally, he specializes in surface science, multiphase reaction system, carbon capture technology, and hydrogen production technology.

Amir Fayazi, PhD.Research Engineer

Dr. Fayazi completed his PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary in 2019. His general research interest lies in the area of transport in porous media, heat/mass transfer, and enhanced oil recovery. He collaborates with PERM Inc. Instruments to design and manufacture various Petroleum Engineering laboratory apparatuses.

Sepideh Maaref, PhD.Research Engineer

Dr. Maaref received her PhD in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary and her M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Iran. She has expertise in enhanced oil recovery, tomographic imaging, fluid flow in porous media, and colloids and interface sciences with the focus of nanoparticles synthesis and characterization for oil field applications. Additionally, she collaborates in Dr. Kantzas’s research chair program in Fundamentals of Unconventional Resources (FUR).

Jihua DongSCAL Specialist

Jihua Dong completed a master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Southwest Petroleum University in China. He has over 30 years of experience in reservoir engineering and EOR research. Furthermore, he has experience with X-CT and NMR systems operation, image analysis, and NMR data interpretation.

Lilly YuSenior Technologist

Lilly Yu has completed an M.Eng. in Oil and Gas Engineering from the University of Geosciences in Beijing, China, as well as a B.Sc. in Applied Chemistry from the Southwest Petroleum Institute in Sichuan, China. She has experience working in SCAL, has strengths in NMR measurement and property testing for fluids, and has published more than 22 papers in more than 10 academic journals in the oil and gas industry.

Imelda NicholasBusiness Operations Manager

Imelda Nicolas completed a master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering and a diploma certificate in Business Administration. She has over 25 years of experience and is in-charge of financial management, project management and the overall day-to-day operations of the company.

Ephrosyne KantzasBusiness Development

Ephrosyne Kantzas has completed a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Calgary. She has several years of experience with business development and marketing.