Who We Are
NXT Energy Solutions Inc. (“NXT”) is a publicly traded company based in Calgary, Canada. The Company offers a unique geophysical service to the upstream oil and gas industry using its proprietary gravity-based Stress Field Detection (“SFD®”) remote-sensing survey system. SFD® is used to rapidly identify and rank prospect- level leads to aid clients in focusing their exploration efforts.
The SFD technology was invented by NXT’s founder and former Chief Executive Officer / President – George Liszicasz in the early 1990s. Following an extensive research and development period and numerous client surveys, SFD was patented as an airborne geophysical technology in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and numerous other countries with George as the primary inventor. George led the company from its inception to his passing away in January 2023.
Currently, SFD® is the only airborne tool that provides information on areas conducive to fluid entrapment in the sedimentary column. The SFD® survey is complementary to existing geophysical methods, particularly seismic programs. In pre-seismic applications, SFD® can generate high-potential prospect leads in large underexplored areas. In post-seismic applications, SFD® can prioritize seismic prospects based on their reservoir potentials.
The SFD® system is used to accelerate onshore and offshore exploration over any terrain with the aim of reducing the total time, cost and risk of the exploration cycle, with no environmental footprint or community impact. SFD® can be rapidly deployed – for example, a project over an area of 5,000 km2 flying a 5 km x 5 km grid can be executed, processed and recommendations delivered to the client in as little as three months.
Following an extensive research and development (“R&D”) phase, SFD® sensor prototypes were first tested in 1996. Numerous oil and gas exploration companies were involved during the period of 1999 to 2005 to test and evaluate SFD® in North America and in the Middle East. These investigations were invaluable in understanding sensor responses, generating historical case studies (see the “Case Studies” section herein) and creating SFD® data interpretation guidelines that are used by NXT.
Up to 2005, approximately 400,000 line kilometres of SFD® data had been acquired and analyzed to refine the process of identifying specific subsurface anomalies relating to oil and gas accumulations. In order to obtain independent analysis of the SFD® results, one of Canada’s leading petroleum reserve evaluators, GLJ Petroleum Consultants (“GLJ”), was engaged to conduct a study of recommendations versus results derived which arose from two large SFD® surveys conducted during the period 1998 to 2000. The GLJ analysis completed in 2005 studied the results of wells which had been drilled both before and after conducting the SFD® surveys, and the extent of the resultant discoveries and related reserves in these areas.
In 2005, NXT executed an agreement to acquire the exclusive world-wide rights to use the SFD® technology in hydrocarbon exploration. In 2006, NXT commenced to contract industry exploration clients on a fee-for-service basis.
In 2008, NXT began targeting its marketing efforts on frontier and international exploration players, with an initial focus on the emerging Colombia E&P market. NXT continues to expand its international survey experience base, and since 2006 has now conducted SFD® surveys in the USA, South America (Colombia, Argentina), Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize) and South Asia (Pakistan).
As evidence of ongoing industry validation of the SFD® technology, two major national oil companies (PEMEX and Pakistan Petroleum Limited) published Joint Technical Papers with NXT in 2013, highlighting the results of their initial use of SFD® surveys (see the “Case Studies” section herein).