All participants, thank you for standing by. The conference is ready to begin. Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Patrick, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NXT Energy Solutions 2021 third quarter operating and financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode for the first part of the conference call with the ability to ask questions after the presentation by the company. For the question and answer session, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. Should you wish to cancel your question, please press star two. 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, Patrick, and welcome and thank you everyone for joining us today for NXT Energy Solutions third 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, Director of Research and Development, 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 Engineer. The purpose of today's call is to briefly discuss the highlights of the release of NXT's third quarter 2021 financial and operating results. Following our update, we will open the line up for questions.
Please note all statements made by the company and management during this call are subject to the readers' advisory regarding forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures set forth in our Q3 2021 release, press release, and MD&A issued November fifteenth. 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 third quarter of 2021 were published on November fifteenth 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. As George mentioned, our third quarter 2021 financial statements and MD&A 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, continuing to control and optimize costs. For the third quarter, our financial results were as follows. Cash and short-term investments were CAD 2.8 million at September 30, 2021, and net working capital was CAD 4.03 million. The company received $750,000 of payments on outstanding accounts receivable in October 2021. Operating activities used CAD 1.07 million of cash during the quarter and CAD 1.23 million year-to-date. There was no revenue in Q3, but year-to-date revenue was CAD 3.14 million.
For the quarter, NXT recorded a net loss of approximately CAD 1.43 million or CAD 0.02 per share based on 64.7 million weighted average common shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of CAD 1.49 million in the third quarter of 2020 or CAD 0.02 per share. For year-to-date, NXT recorded a net loss of approximately CAD 1.55 million or CAD 0.02 per share based on 64.6 million weighted average common shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of CAD 4.37 million during year-to-date 2020 or CAD 0.07 per share. Total operating expenses for the third quarter were CAD 1.51 million, including survey costs. This included non-cash expenses of CAD 0.57 million related to amortization and stock-based compensation expenses.
Total operating expenses for year to date were CAD 4.63 million, including survey costs. This included non-cash expenses of CAD 1.54 million related to amortization and stock-based compensation expense. G&A expenses increased CAD 22,000 or 3% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to 2020 for the following reasons. Salaries, benefits, and consulting charges increased CAD 75,000 due to the decreasing Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy rates, offset by lower vacation expense in the third quarter. Audit and professional fees of public company costs decreased CAD 91,000 or 35% due to decreased legal fees. Premises and administrative and overhead costs decreased CAD 52,000 or 26% due to the receipt of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy in 2021.
Business development costs were minimal in both periods as travel restrictions continued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stock-based compensation expenses were higher in 2021 versus 2020 by CAD 91,000 through the implementation of the RSU plan and the employee share purchase plan. G&A expenses decreased to CAD 100,000 or 8% year-to-date in 2021 compared to 2020 for the following reasons. Salaries, benefits, consulting charges increased CAD 73,000 due to the decrease in Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy rate, again, offset by lower vacation expense. Audit and professional fees and public company costs decreased CAD 156,000 due to lower legal fees. Premises, administrative overhead decreased CAD 132,000 due to receipt of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy in 2021.
Business development costs decreased CAD 127 thousand as travel restrictions continued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stock-based compensation expenses were higher in year-to-date 2021 versus 2020 by CAD 141 thousand, again, due to the implementation of the RSU plan and the employee share purchase plan. To summarize some of the key financial points, we ended the quarter with CAD 2.8 million of cash and short-term investments on hand, a net working capital balance of CAD 4.03 million. We received $750 thousand in October for outstanding accounts receivable in respect to a pre-existing SFD® data sale earlier in the year, with remaining $650 thousand expected to be received later in the fourth quarter. Our main focus continues to be 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 and forward plans.
Thank you, Eugene. First, I want to convey my sincere hope that everyone is well and continues to stay healthy at this time. As Eugene mentioned, although there were no survey revenues in Q3, we did receive $750,000 from existing data sales. The third quarter remained very productive for the company on multiple fronts. Progress continues with respect to the development of the SFD®-GT, which is the geothermal sensor family, for which NXT is receiving advisory services and funding from the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program. NXT tested existing SFD® sensors under different operating parameters associated with subsurface conditions favorable for geothermal resources. The test results have demonstrated that the development of a dedicated SFD® geothermal sensor family can be accelerated.
We have a number of companies that are interested in using SFD® and currently in the process of negotiating two contracts, one domestic and one international. We are hopeful that the company will be able to update the market with more details very soon. NXT is continuing the development and processing of the processing algorithms that will assist in the attribute mapping interpretation and the integration of SFD® data. NXT has begun preliminary work to extend these methods and processes to the raw data and show the output to potential clients. Based on the positive feedback, now we are reflecting the value in commercial proposals. As previously communicated, these enhancements will help drive the integration of SFD® data and results into the overall upstream exploration cycle.
We also recently announced that the SFD® patent in India has been officially granted, which has already generated commercial interest in the country and also among operators. The company is currently engaged in discussion with these operators and will update you as warranted. Africa business development. NXT's most promising opportunity still lies in the Nigeria frontier basins and remains our priority as we believe our business with the national oil company and other international explorers will continue. We recognize Africa as one of the most important continents for sustained hydrocarbon and geothermal exploration. The utilization of SFD® will mitigate all exploration risk, provide time and cost-effective solutions in a friendly ESG manner. Turning our attention to Latin America and Asia with projects where we have made significant progress since our last call.
We are optimistic the current negotiations will lead to new and repeat business in Latin America and Asia. We are pleased to report that NXT has made excellent progress with respect to new survey opportunities in Q3 with companies in South and Southeast Asia. We hope to provide the market with further information and update in due course. In summary, hydrocarbon SFD® survey opportunities continue to progress well within our core areas of focus in Africa, Mexico, Asia, and South America. Additionally, multiple geothermal companies have inquired about our SFD®-GT services. We remain highly optimistic about the prospects for new surveys and extremely focused on contract execution in order to deliver value to our shareholders. In conclusion, on behalf of our board of directors and the entire NXT team, I want to thank you all of our shareholders for their continued support.
We wish the best of health to you and your families. Now I ask Patrick to open up the line for a few questions.
Thank you. We'll now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you're using a speaker phone, please get your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while the participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. The first question is from Gary DiStefano, from ThinkEquity. Please go ahead.
Hey, George, Eugene, NXT team, congratulations on your continued successes to date. I just wanted to ask a quick question or two quick questions, and I'll skip my follow-up. Just one around the general expectations for the split in revenue between service sales and data sales going forward. The other question is, do you have any anticipation around any other potential revenue verticals going forward as well? Appreciate your time. Thanks.
I'll answer the first question. It's in regards to our split on service revenue versus data sale. We're forecasting most of our sales to be service revenue. We're always open to sales of our data out of our data library.
What's the second one? Was it about the verticals?
Verticals.
Yes. We are in the process of establishing the domestic and the international verticals. We have been approached by a number of companies now also to join our special purpose vehicle for the domestic one, and also we are working on the international one currently as well. As soon as we know how things are going to progress, we are going to give you an update. Thank you, Gary, for your question.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, you may press star one if you have a question. The next question is from Michael Mark, from Mork Capital Management . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the update. It was a good update. I got two questions. One, once the client has used the SFD® technology and has seen the time and the cost advantages, like 10 to 1 or whatever it is, why does it take so long to get the second follow-on contract?
Thank you, Mike. You know, good to hear from you. Do you wanna answer it?
Yeah.
Okay. You start, and then I continue.
Hi, Mike, this is Enrique Hung. How are you?
Hi.
Historically, we have seen from the recommendation to the drilling of exploration well, it takes about four years. This is maybe the custom or the normal time of exploration. We are trying to accelerate, and we see that the environment of the market is being accelerated, and that brings up to maybe more need for new technologies and tools. SFD® is one of these new tools that it can be to play to accelerate this process or this time cycle.
Also, the pandemic, you know, was a big part of.
Yeah. Yeah.
accessing people, because if you don't meet people face to face, it's much harder to
You can see in the successful wells in Jiquilpan, so the survey was done in 2015. The discovery well was just drilled in 2020. Same with some of the 2012 early surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. They were drilled in 2016 and maybe later, 2018 and 2019. Those are the corroborated success that we have had with our recommendations worldwide, similar to Argentina, which was maybe shorter timeframe. It was not as rich as the other ones.
Yeah. Happier.
Okay. That's very helpful. My second question is, the National Oil Companies analyses, they take a little bit longer for obvious reasons. Now since your last two board members have extensive private and public company experience, do you think we can attack the private sector more now and, you know, both the NOCs and the private sector's clients?
Both of our board members have expressed at last board meeting the introduction of SFD® in their domain, basically. One of them would be Africa, which would be further introduction of the technology when we are going to Nigeria. Also, in Indonesia and the surrounding countries there, and which would include Malaysia, India, and so on. One of the issues that we have with the repeat surveys is the procurement process is lengthy and involves not only the E&P companies but also the government agencies, government offices. Things become a little bit more political rather than commercial.
As a result of that, you know, you have to, you know, work very, very hard to make sure that we will secure these contracts which we believe that we are doing. I'm extremely hopeful that we are going to return to generating contract revenues as opposed to selling our current data that is existing. Which is also very good because, you know, you have 99% growth on it so it has been acquired and interpreted and so on. It's a good source of revenue, and it's a wonderful recognition of the value of the SFD® technology. I hope that answers your question, Mike.
Yes, you did. It was very good. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Thomas Wood from Woodlet. Please go ahead.
Hey, George. Hey, team. Thanks so much for the updates. I was just wondering if you guys could add a little bit more color to the geothermal stuff. It just seems like that's a really exciting new venture, and if nothing else, very topical right now. I'm wondering if you could talk about timeline of developing the technology, kind of what some benchmarks are that you're looking for, any plans for marketing or talking about that, just anything more in that realm. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Tom. Great to hear from you. Dr. Xiang Gui and myself, we are working very hard on the sensor development and also for the geothermal and also testing the technology and evaluating it and so on. We are very pleased, you know, to have the National Research Council assistance. That is on the development side. Now, the companies are interested in utilizing the technology, which is also very positive. I will ask Mohammed Saqib, you know, just to elaborate on the importance why these geothermal companies could benefit from utilizing the technology first. Go ahead, Mohammed Saqib.
Hi, Tom. Yes, like you pointed out, you know, the geothermal is a up-and-coming development for the SFD® technology. It's very important because this is a more long-term solution as you go forward, especially in the power space, which is becoming more important in the overall energy mix. Geothermal is one of those few green or alternative power sources that is more non-intermittent, it's more base load, more predictable. You know, the sooner the SFD® occupies the space in that sector, the better it is going to be. You know, we have some very good results that we've seen from the test surveys that we've undertaken so far as part of the development.
Yes, we are quite excited about where this will go, and you know, hopefully that comes to a conclusion very soon.
Yeah. We are hoping, you know, to secure the contract soon. Any follow-up questions, Tom?
Yeah. Just for clarity, are you guys feeling as though the technology is working now, and now it's just a matter of trying it out with some first-time clients? Or are there still developmental benchmarks that you guys are looking to accomplish?
Both.
Both.
We've issued that the technology as it stands today can be utilized, but we are working on also improving the technical side to suit the geothermal application more. I'm speaking too much, maybe just.
Give another example. You can give an example.
Yeah. You know, the porosity, the permeability, the extension. Go ahead.
It's basically comes down to the fact that the hydrocarbon and the geothermal technological requirements are very, very similar, in fact, at the end of the day. That's what makes the current system usable, with a few modifications of course needed, to make it fit appropriately to the geothermal space. The current system, yes, it is deployable the way it is right now. I think as George pointed out and Ricky pointed out, we're working on finalizing some of the commercial opportunities. At the same time, you know, work continues on having a dedicated sensor family for the geothermal, which is basically redesigned from the ground up specifically for geothermal applications.
It would fit better, it would work better, be faster, be more predictable and so on. That's not going to stop us from pursuing the commercial opportunities in the meantime. George, anyway.
Great. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it.
Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Liszicasz.
In that case, if there are no more questions, I would like to thank everyone for participating in our conference call today. Until next time, you stay in good health and your families. If you have any other questions, please give us a call. We are always available unless we're gonna be on the road, which I very much hope so. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.