scitech library question

:: I received a query from a chemical engineering student yesterday, who was looking for assay information on a grade of oil called Lloydminster blend. The information he had suggested that a series of assay articles had appeared in Oil & Gas Journal in 1983. Searches through Ei Compendex, Chem Abs, Petroleum Abs, and GeoRef returned no hits.

A web search, however, led me to the web site of the Environment Technology Centre of Environment Canada. The ETC provides access to a number of databases and software, including Spills Technology Databases. One of these is the Oil Properties Database, which lists various properties of 450 crude oil and oil products, such as Sulphur (weight %), API Gravity, Flash Point (°C), Density (g/mL), Dynamic Viscosity (mPa·s or cP), Hydrocarbon Groups (weight %), Oil/Salt Water Interfacial Tension (mN/m or dynes/cm), and many others.

A couple of drawbacks: you are allowed only 15 results per day per I.P. address, but this is not mentioned on the site, until you try for your 16th result! Also, data is referenced with a name/title and year, but there is no bibliography or explanation of the references, so that you can locate them afterwards. Still, the data is good, and the student advised that the data he required was there, and that additional data on the oil was of value to him as well.

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