NXT Energy Solutions Inc. (NSFDF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Leah, and I will be your conferencing operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NXT Energy Solutions 2021 First Quarter End Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. George Liszicasz, President and CEO of NXT Energy Solutions. Please go ahead, Mr. Liszicasz.

Thank you, Leah. And welcome, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today for NXT Energy Solutions First Quarter 2021 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. This is George Liszicasz. And joining me on today's conference call is Eugene Woychyshyn, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer; Dr. Xiang Gui, of R&D -- Director of R&D, Research and Development, of Sensors; Rashid Tippu, Director of Geosciences for Africa, Asia and Middle East; Enrique Hung, Director of Geosciences for the Americas; and Mohammad Saqib, Head of Interpretation and Project Engineering. Please be advised that Mr. Saqib has been incorrectly referred to as the Director of Operations previously. He has never been a Director, and his position has always been Head of Interpretation, Project Engineer. And no changes to his role or responsibility has occurred. The purpose of today's call is to briefly discuss the highlights of the news release of NXT's first quarter 2021 financial and operating results. Following our update, we will open up the line for questions. Please note all statements made by the company and management during this call are subject to the reader's advisory on forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures set forth in our Q1 2021 results press release and MD&A issued yesterday. All dollar amounts discussed in today's conference call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. The complete financial and operating results and consolidated financial statements for the first quarter 2021 were published yesterday, May 11, and are available on NXT's website, SEDAR's website and soon, will be available on EDGAR's website. Now over to Eugene for the financial review.

Thank you, George, and welcome, everyone. As George mentioned, our first quarter 2021 financial statements and management discussion and analysis were filed on SEDAR's website yesterday and will shortly be available on EDGAR. From a financial perspective, the focus remained on supporting the execution of the business development effort and continuing to control and optimize costs. For the first quarter, our financial results were as follows. Cash and short-term investments were $2.15 million at March 31, 2021, and net working capital was $1.51 million. Operating activities used $0.88 million of cash during the quarter. There is no revenue earned in the first quarter. For the quarter, NXT recorded a net loss of approximately $1.64 million or $0.03 per share based on 64.5 million weighted average common shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of $1.33 million in the first quarter of 2020 or $0.02 per share. Total operating expenses for the first quarter were $1.61 million, including survey costs. This included noncash expenses of $0.47 million related to amortization and stock-based compensation expenses. G&A expenses decreased by $96,000 or 10% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to 2020 for the following reasons. Salaries, benefits and consulting charges increased by $34,000 or 8% due to an increase in temporary head count. There was an offset by -- this was offset by Board and professional fees and public company costs, which decreased $35,000 or 15% due to decreased insurance costs and legal fees. Premises and administrative overhead costs increased $27,000 for the quarter or 16% due to building common area charges being higher and increased software costs. Business development costs increased -- business development costs decreased by $127,000 or 97% due to the restrictions on travel from the COVID-19 pandemic. And finally, the stock-based compensation expense was higher by $5,000 or 22% due to employee share purchase plan, which commenced in the fourth quarter of 2020 and has approximately 75% of employee participation. To summarize some key financial points. We ended the quarter with $2.15 million of cash and short-term investments on hand and a net working capital balance of $1.51 million. Net loss for the quarter was $1.64 million. Cash used in operations was $883,000. Our main focus is on the execution of NXT's commercial opportunities. I would now like to hand the call back over to George to further discuss our business' update.

Thank you, Eugene. First, I want to convey my sincere hope that everyone is well and continues to stay healthy at this time. As the world increases its vaccination levels and economies reopen, we continue to see strong evidence that robust economic activity is expected to continue. The International Energy Agency announced today that the 2020 oil supply glut created by the global pandemic has cleared even as demand suffers a blow from the recent resurgence of the virus in India. Global consumption is on track for a rebound of 5.4 million barrels a day or 6% this year after 2020's unprecedented slump. The International Energy Agency is forecasting the recovery will gather momentum in the second half, causing stockpiles to dwindle even further. The WTI is currently sitting around $66 per barrel, which is good sign for the business of oil and gas exploration. Although no survey revenues were recorded in Q1, SFD survey opportunities continue to progress in our core areas of focus in Africa, Mexico and South America. In addition, with the recently announced acquisition of the SFD geothermal technology rights, the company now embarks on an exciting new chapter in transitioning itself as a multiple application solutions provider for both the oil and gas and geothermal exploration industry. The main subsurface properties such as porosity, permeability and impermeable cap rock that are vital in the search for oil and gas resources are equally critical for locating the most prospective geothermal resources. For these reasons, the SFD technology has a natural extension to geothermal applications. Since first commercialized in 2007 for hydrocarbon use, NXT's nonintrusive SFD airborne technology enabled its customers to significantly improve drill success rates while reducing the overall negative environmental impact of traditional large-scale ground surveys by minimizing disruptions to community life and surface use. In April 2020, NXT received confirmation of a patent granted from the European Patent Office, bringing the total number of countries granting the patent internationally to 44. NXT will apply for patent protection for the geothermal application of SFD once development of the SFD sensors reach appropriate milestones. As industries worldwide transition toward low-carbon economy, geothermal energy has gained greater prominence for its environmental benefits as a non-intermittent renewable energy source. NXT looks forward to leveraging its extensive research and marketing skill set acquired with hydrocarbon resource development and commercialization and apply it to geothermal research application worldwide. Let us discuss our continued business development efforts. Since we recently had an investor call, I will only focus on matters that have progress today. I will start with Africa. As I mentioned within our previous call 6 weeks ago, NXT has received approval to plan a trip to Nigeria for senior-level discussion on existing and future projects. The purpose of these meetings was to close out the remaining milestone of our 2019 project and begin efforts to design the next SFD grid surveys based on technical recommendations. We are now able to report that the trip was undertaken between the second and the fourth weeks of April. Numerous face-to-face technical meetings were held. However, due to privacy and competitive reasons, we are not permitted to publicly discuss specifics at this stage. Suffice to say that it is our opinion that the team has successfully achieved most of its objectives. We acknowledge the efforts of our partner, PE Energy, led by Mr. Daere Akobo, in developing and arranging these important strategic meetings, and we look forward to continued collaboration with PE Energy. Since our return to Canada 2 weeks ago, active discussions and technical meetings have continued, and it is our hope that we will be able to update the market further on any new development as soon as we are in the position to do so. With respect to Mexico, as you are aware, the bulk of NXT's efforts in Mexico have been directed to leverage our previous surveys and positive drilling results to generate repeat business. The impact of COVID-19 has been significant, and this has resulted in challenges in finalizing discussions and projects. We are able to report that the Mexican government has allocated 15 blocks to its national oil company as part of a wide-ranging reserve replacement plan, and NXT is continually in discussions with the management and technical leads for these blocks. We'll keep you posted on further developments. Geothermal. As previously mentioned, NXT has begun its initial foray into geothermal applications of [ SFD GT ]. Our first step is to work on sensor development and the subsequent data calibration flight -- conduct subsequent data calibration flights over geothermal prospects in Alberta, British Columbia and California in preparation for eventual commercial deployment. We have had some preliminary discussion with potential clients regarding commercial applications of SFD for geothermal both in Canada and internationally. Our technical premise for this has been well received. We are excited about this new avenue for the company. In conclusion, on behalf of our Board of Directors and the entire NXT team, I want to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support. We wish the best of health to you and your families. I now ask our operator, Leah, to open up the line for us to take a few of your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Mike Mork.

Just wondered if you could give a little more definitive answer on testing and the time frame of testing the SFD for the geothermal -- potential geothermal surveys.

Thank you, Mike, for your question. As we mentioned in this call -- on this call before, NXT needs to finalize the necessary modifications to the sensors. We are working on that right now, and we are going to undertake more robust work very soon. Once it is completed, then we will do calibration flights, as we mentioned, in various -- to where the geothermal applications are going to be set in the geology because you can have different geological settings, as you know, and we have to calibrate the sensors for that. And then once it is done, then we are going to develop the project pipeline and start engaging the clients that have expressed interest in geothermal application already worldwide.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of [ Jan Suazo ].

I'm just checking. Are you guys looking in the future to also find the oil and also drill it ourselves so we can also get the profits from the sale of the oil, not just the flying over and detecting it?

Thank you very much. Yes. Our plan is specifically -- I don't know, somebody has his telephone open, but I will just continue. So it's basically to participate in some ways in... [Technical Difficulty] Some of the contracts would contain participation rights or access to royalties that we can even... [Technical Difficulty] So I don't know if you can hear us well but the answer is yes.

And your next question comes from the line of [ Charles Davidson ].

A quick question about cash. Considering the cash that the company went through in the first quarter and the remaining cash, there is, of course, the possibility that a contract won't come through in the next quarter. Perhaps you could touch on what the company's plans are.

Thanks, [ Charles ]. So we are confident in our ability to execute on our commercial plan and the operating cash that will be generated from it. So we're confident in our commercial plans.

Okay. So basically, you're not worried about it at all.

That is correct.

And your next question comes from the line of [ Ricki Miller ].

I'm just curious. Like we don't -- didn't generate any revenue this round. Are we anticipating through some of these contracts coming up that by year-end, we will have generated some revenue?

Our short answer is we are confident that we will be able to generate revenue.

A significant amount or enough to cover the costs?

That is to be determined. But we are -- we've got several items in our pipeline, and we are working on converting those into revenue.

[Operator Instructions] And we have a follow-up question from the line of [ Jan Suazo ].

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Yes, we can, [ Jan ].

I don't have a follow-up question. Something happened there. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, then attending to our conference call, and wish to update you shortly.

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.