Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Faith, and I will be your conferencing operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NXT Energy Solutions 2021 second quarter and operating and financial results conference call. All participants will be listening 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 telephone keypad. Should you wish to cancel your question, please press the pound key. That all callers have an opportunity to ask their question, we will limit each caller to one question and a follow-up question. 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, Faith. Welcome, and thank you everyone for joining us today for NXT Energy Solutions second quarter 2021 financial and operating results conference call. This is George Liszicasz, and joining me today's conference call is Eugene Woychyshyn, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Xiang Gui, Director of R&D , Rashid Tippu, Director of Geosciences for Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Enrique Hung, Director of Geosciences for the Americas, and Mohammed 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 second 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 readers' advisory regarding forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures set forth in our Q2 2021 press release and MD&A issued on August 12th. 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 second quarter of 2021 were published on August 12th and are available on NXT's website, SEDAR's website, and soon will be available on EDGAR's website. Over to Eugene for the financial review.
Thank you, George, and welcome everyone. As George mentioned, our second quarter 2021 financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis were filed on SEDAR's website on August 12th and will shortly be available on EDGAR. We are pleased with the quarter results, especially with CAD 729,000 of operating cash flow and net income of CAD 1.53 million or CAD 0.02 per share. 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 second quarter, our financial results were as follows. Cash and short-term investments were CAD 3.78 million at June 30th, 2021. Net working capital is CAD 4.64 million. Operating activities provided CAD 729,000 of cash during the quarter. Revenue was CAD 3.14 million in the second quarter and year to date.
For the quarter, NXT recorded a net income of approximately CAD 1.53 million or CAD 0.02 per share, based on CAD 64.5 million weighted average common shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of CAD 1.48 million in the second quarter of 2020 or CAD 0.02 per share. For year to date, NXT recorded a net loss of approximately CAD 110,000 or CAD 0.00 per share, based on 64.5 million weighted average common shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of CAD 2.8 million during year to date 2020 or CAD 0.04 per share. Total operating expenses for the second quarter were CAD 1.51 million, including survey costs. This includes non-cash expenses of CAD 500,000 related to amortization and stock-based compensation expenses. Total operating expenses year to date were CAD 3.12 million, including survey costs. This included non-cash expenses of CAD 0.96 million related to amortization and stock-based compensation expenses.
General administrative expenses decreased by CAD 127,000 or 16% in the second quarter compared to 2020 for the following reasons. Salaries, benefits, and consulting charges decreased CAD 36,000 or 11% due to Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Board, professional fees, and public company costs decreased CAD 29,000 or 11% due to lower professional fees. Premises, administrative, and overhead costs decreased CAD 107,000 for the quarter or 52% due to receipt of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, and stock-based compensation was higher by CAD 45,000 or 22% due to the employee share purchase plan which commenced in the fourth quarter of 2020 and has approximately 75% employee participation. G&A expenses decreased CAD 223,000 or 12% year to date 2021 compared to 2020 for the following reasons.
Board and professional fees and public company costs decreased CAD 80,000 or 21% due to lower professional fees. Premises administrative overhead costs decreased CAD 80,000 for the quarter or 21% due to the receipt of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy. Business development costs decreased CAD 126,000 or 96% as travel restrictions continue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and stock-based compensation was higher by CAD 49,000 due to the employee share purchase and RSU plans. During the quarter, the company received a million-dollar HAS CAP loan with an interest rate of 4% for a 10-year term. To summarize some of the key financial points, we ended the quarter with CAD 3.78 million of cash and short-term investments on hand, and a net working capital balance of CAD 4.64 million. Net income for the quarter is CAD 1.53 million, and net loss was CAD 110,000 year to date.
Cash provided by operations was CAD 729,000 for the quarter, and we used CAD 154,000 year to date. 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. Thank you, Eugene. I want to convey my sincere hope that everyone is well and continues to stay healthy at this time. Before I continue with the business development update, I would like to say a few words about NXT's position in light of the global energy changes as I see it. I want our shareholders to note that the transition of our company into other energy sectors is coinciding with our transformation into a technology company. The application of SFD is vast, and we are constantly considering expanding opportunities that can provide increasing return to our shareholders. Our objective is to expand into these new spaces and capitalize on the opportunities not only as a service provider, but as a participant via special purpose vehicle, where the reward can include royalty, bonus, equity, and participation rights.
Eugene mentioned that we recorded revenues of CAD 3.78 million and had a total cash inflows of CAD 730,000 from operations, which shows a modest but initial result of our business development efforts. Revenues generated were from the sales of pre-existing SFD data. Continuing with the business update, I'm also pleased to announce the addition of Mr. Gerry Sheehan, a highly rewarded energy explorationist, to our board of directors on July 1st, 2021. Mr. Sheehan has worked extensively in international oil and gas exploration, development, and production for over 30 plus years. He has a broad technical and business development experience in Africa, South Asia, and Europe, which he will bring to NXT as the company seeks new markets for its proven SFD tool. In the short period of time he has joined NXT's board, Gerry has already made his presence felt.
If you'd like to know more about Gerry's background, please refer to the June 23rd press release. On the technology development, I would like to note that the SFD technology has been exclusively deployed today in the upstream hydrocarbon sector for the identification of potential hydrocarbon traps and reservoirs. Recently, as you know, we have announced that the company is receiving advisory services and funding for up to CAD 50,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, or IRAP, to support this research and development of the SFD technology for geothermal applications. The IRAP funding follows an earlier announcement of the acquisition of the SFD geothermal technology rights. The company now embarks on an exciting new chapter in transitioning itself as a multiple application solution provider for both oil and gas and geothermal industries.
The objective of IRAP funding is to test, identify, and analyze the desired elements of the SFD sensor response over known geothermal areas with the ultimate goal of developing and providing NXT with a clean geophysical service branch for renewable power initiatives in Canada and abroad. We are extremely pleased to have the support of IRAP to advance the application of SFD for exploring geothermal energy resources. We consider this as the first step in establishing a long-term relationship with IRAP. Continuing on the Africa business development, NXT's most promising opportunity for significant revenue is tied with our recent success in Nigeria's Frontier Basin. We are very pleased that the country has this morning espoused into law the Petroleum Industry Bill to overhaul its oil and gas industry. A significant portion of the capital will be allocated for exploration and producing oil and gas for the large population in the interior.
Nigeria is our priority, and we believe our business with the NOC, which is NNPC, the national company, and other international explorers will thrive for many years to come. We are excited about the continued positive development in other African countries as well. We recognize that Africa is one of the most important continents for sustained hydrocarbon and geothermal application. The utilization of SFD will mitigate overall exploration risk, provide time and cost-effective solutions in a friendly ESG manner. Let us turn our attention to Latin America. We are equally focused on Latin America projects, where we have seen increased interest in SFD application. A number of SFD recommendations have been drilled successfully over the years in Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina. We anticipate these successes will lead to new contract opportunities in Latin America.
With respect to the Middle East and Asia, NXT is engaged in continued discussions with interested parties. Prospects are developing progressively in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently ramping across Asia. With respect to the GT opportunities, I would like to say that I'm pleased that there are a number of companies already that would consider using SFD-GT. The geothermal is GT. We are hopeful to have our first geothermal project announced this year. In summary, hydrocarbon survey opportunities continue to progress well in our core areas in Africa, Mexico, Asia, and South America. In addition, we are in discussions with multiple geothermal companies about providing SFD services. For these reasons, we are optimistic about the second half of 2021, and we'll remain focused on contract execution in order to deliver value to our shareholders. A couple of notes about the upcoming Sidoti conference.
I'm pleased to note that Eugene and I will be presenting at the Sidoti August Micro-Cap conference Wednesday, August 18th, which is tomorrow, 11:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 8:30 A.M. Pacific Standard Time. Please refer to the press release issued on August 11 for instructions on how to view the presentation. In conclusion, on behalf of our board of directors and the entire team at NXT, I want to thank you, all our shareholders, for their continued support. We wish you the best of health to you and your families. I now ask the operator, Faith, to open the line for questioning.
Thank you, sir. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Should you wish to cancel your question, please press the pound key. That all callers have an opportunity to ask their question, we will limit each caller to one question and a follow-up question. Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Ford from Woodley. Your line is open.
Hey, guys. You sound muted on these calls. Just want to say first off, I really appreciate all you guys have been doing. It's been a really tough year. I've been a long time investor, like nearly a decade. I feel like everybody on this call, the story we're all telling ourselves about NXT is it's this amazing game-changing technology, and I think we've all bought into that. I think also, over the last few years, it's just felt like we've faced a ton of skepticism. I'm excited for all the things that are up and coming. I'm super excited about the geothermal front. I'm wondering from, I guess I'd call it a marketing standpoint, if you guys are thinking at all in terms of the story that you're able to tell here.
Do we have a test that we could be doing that would be proving the technology in a more undeniable way? If there's some sort of independent body that could be verifying stuff that we're doing. Right now, it just feels like for the last years, we've been facing all this skepticism, and I don't want the great work that you guys are doing, trying to get all these contracts to then be second-guessed by the industry leaders. If we are a tech company, I guess the question is, how are we proving our disruption in a way that's easy and undeniable and digestible? That'd be it. Thanks.
Thank you, Thomas. I think that your comments are valid. Thank you. From the marketing perspective, what we found over the last couple of years that it is becoming easier. There are papers, and we are very happy to share that with any of our investors as well. Probably some of that we should post also on the website. Mo is telling me that we will do so. That now proves that this type of technology can be constructed, built. We have never shied away just regarding the testing part from a test. Thomas, every single national oil company and every oil company tests us. We have done two tests actually in Nigeria. One was an onshore test and one was an offshore test. In both cases, two different divisions of the national company were involved.
We were not on the airplane either. The technology was independently tested onshore and offshore. We did it with flying colors. That's why we got the contract. That's why we are looking forward now for a long-term, many years to come, a contract opportunity in Nigeria, where we are going to be working, potentially with the super majors and majors as well. If you know anybody that I'm totally open where we can do a test. We offered it to the industry. We offered it to a super major as well. They said that they don't understand the technology, therefore, the test is not important to them. If you do know anybody, a third party that would test the tool, we are willing to do a 1,000-line kilometer test anywhere in the world, okay? As long as they have their G&G information.
Maybe Enrique or Rashid, you guys can add to this. They are the geologists, the geophysicists with respect to this question.
I think he was referring to the geothermal testing, which is also being considered. That was part of the question. The marketing for the new branch of SFD-GT.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'd say for either. I mean, it just specifies.
No, I have brought in very important people from universities to review the technology, and we had no problem.
Great. Yeah. I guess the fundamental question is just saying that we love the technology, we're excited about it. I think there are a lot of papers and research, and I think there are these tests that you guys are doing. I'm just wondering if there's ways that we can get that, I don't know, like a simpler story. It might just be talking in marketing language so that it's, like you said, they don't understand the technology. Is there something so simple that we could put in front of people that like, "These guys did this," that would wow the world. Again, that's not a challenge. That's an encouragement because I'm excited by what's happened.
Everybody. Every major oil and gas company tested the technology independently. Okay? Whether it is Pemex or down in Colombia.
PRE
PRE did it and also, the national company.
Ecopetrol.
Ecopetrol did it. GRG report is out there. They did it many years ago. It's all on the website as well, those ones. Maybe I just very slowly describe one of the tests. Maybe you can describe the Shell, Chevron 3D test offshore in Nigeria that they did.
Yeah.
This is Rashid.
Rashid is here. George mentioned earlier, like in Nigeria, we were tested by two different government authorities. One is definitely the survey we were doing for the company. They initially planned for offshore, but they give us onshore areas right before we fly. The other one was on the offshore area where nobody knows we give them independent results for the test. When we integrated with their geoscientist team, then we learned there were two super major companies there requesting for drilling permission based on the seismic prospect. SFD recommended those seismic prospect as a independently verifying those seismic prospects, which was not known to two prospects. Two super majors were looking for permission to build-
All offshore, right? All offshore.
We completed that test in a fly in three hours, and now next day, they were requesting us to present the results. It's like within 24 hours, we gave them a result.
Nobody can do this.
That's something. That's why we got the approval from Nigerian authorities. That's how they said, "SFD is the only unconventional technology will be used to explore in frontier exploration, and also before drilling any well, we should use this technology."
I hope that answers your question. If you want to talk about it more and you are interested in the papers or maybe you have some very good suggestions regarding the marketing or any other aspects of the technology, please give me a call.
Thanks, George. Appreciate all you guys are doing.
Thank you so much.
Your next question is from Michael Mork from Mork Capital. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi. It's nice to see some decent working capital on the balance sheet and got some momentum now. I just wondered, it's been a couple of years since you've had a director of sales. Is there any game plan here to get a director of sales to make sure that all the leads and all the things that are happening are followed up on. In particular, I'm wondering if Gerry Sheehan, who you said has business development experience in Africa, Asia, Europe, if he can help in this endeavor of getting the technology out there a little better.
Thank you, Mike. Thank you for your support. This is George. I just talked to Gerry yesterday. He's preparing a whole list of countries in Africa that we are going to be talking to. I can't go ahead of myself, but there are a number of countries that he has in mind, and he has very good connections in those countries that we are considering as an opportunity. That includes a number of the sub-Sahara countries. We are very positive and very pleased with his involvement because everybody knows him. That's a very good thing for NXT. He has a tremendous respect there. As you know, he was heading Tullow's exploration, and the Jubilee Field, that is about 300 million barrels offshore, is his doing.
That's how Tullow took off, and he brought a number of new discoveries to that company, and we are very pleased to have him to work with us.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question is from Tucker Andersen from Above All Advisors. Your line is open.
Hi, George. How are you?
Hi, Tucker. How are you?
Fine. I hope you and your family have been safe through and all the COVID.
Oh, I'm fully vaccinated.
Sometimes that hasn't stopped people from catching it, but I'm glad you were an anti-vaxxer.
Thanks.
Sounds like our patience is getting closer to being rewarded. My question was your comment on geothermal in Africa. I was not aware that Africa was really an active market for geothermal. Are there projects there currently? Or is this a case of there's enough potential, so SFD would be very helpful in identifying the projects?
Yeah. We are currently in negotiations and talks with a very powerful funding capital excuse me funding firm, an investment banking firm that has several projects in Africa, including Kenya and Mozambique. We are establishing this relationship right now. They sought us out. The technical people know Rashid. I don't think I know anybody who doesn't know Rashid in the geoscience world or Enrique, for that matter. We are positioning ourselves for the geothermal activities also in Nigeria. There's a tremendous interest. Yes. The answer is yes to your question.
Well, good luck and congratulations on the working capital, as Mike said.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Tucker.
Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Should you wish to cancel your question, press the pound key. Please limit one question and one follow-up question. Your next question is from David Appleman, a private investor. Your line is open.
Hi, George. How are you doing?
Hi. How are you?
Not too bad. My question is, what is being done to get the information to the brokerage community and to get more investors involved internationally with your company? Is there a marketing plan, or is somebody in charge of doing that at this time? What the company lacks right now is liquidity in the market, and I'd like to know what's being done to increase the knowledge base of the brokerage community.
That's exactly what this conference that we just attended to is going to accomplish to start the whole process. As we are going to generate more revenues and more contracts, we are just going to expand it to North America and then Europe and Asia at the same time. I agree with you, that our market, our stock is a little bit depressed. The truth is that you cannot just inflate the share price. We want to deliver the goods. I think that we are on the right track now to do so. Since I can't say everything on a conference call because it would be selective disclosure, but as we are making these announcements, these new opportunities, new contracts, you will see a significant increase in market share value.
Thank you for your question, David.
Your next question is from Peter Mork from Mork Capital Management. Your line is open.
Hey, guys. Again, congrats on the revenue, the working capital, and the earnings. That was great. A lot of optimism you're expressing for the kind of the back half of this year that we're already into. I was wondering if you could, on a couple different fronts, give us some of the key milestones that we should be looking at as investors, and specifically on work in Africa, work in LATAM, and geothermal. If you could. I don't know if one person wants to answer that. Your next call is going to be in, let's call it mid-November. What are some of the keys that we should be looking for to show that this optimism that you're expressing is coming to fruition? Thanks.
Yeah. Hi, Peter. Rashid is here. As you heard what George was talking about, Petroleum Industry Bill. The main objective for that Petroleum Industry Bill for Nigeria is to promote exploration and exploitation for oil and gas in Nigeria. What we are looking at now is a multi-year project opportunities within Nigeria, especially since we are approved and tested technology in Nigeria. Not only this will help in Nigeria, it will also help in us to getting the projects outside Nigeria, other African countries. We are seeing really very positive news for us in term of business development in the region. Yeah.
How about, I would just say Latin America and also the geothermal, what are some of the key markets we should be looking for there?
Hey, Pete. For Latin America, if you take a look at what's going on in Ecuador and Bolivia, we have been in video conference because it's really exciting what is happening there. They're designating big funds for exploration, which was not happening in the past two or three years. Bolivia, for example, is investing CAD 1.4 billion on exploration, and similarly, Ecuador is investing CAD 2 billion in exploration. The goal is, at least for Ecuador, Petroamazonas, is to duplicate their production in the short term. Also, we're working in alliances with people in Mexico and in Latin America that has allowed us to have a broader view of other new contacts in different countries. This means that there are major service companies that we may be announcing alliances in the future.
These companies have foot on the ground on many other countries that we will soon be reporting, hopefully very positively.
Great. Then just tying in the geothermal. Kind of following up on Thomas's question, just to lead that off. You guys got this funding to prove out the technology or develop the sensors, I guess. How does SFD specifically fit into this as a geothermal application in terms of exploration? Maybe a little color on that. Is there some sort of test that could be, so we could see a paper up on the website or whatnot proving that it works as you've done with the oil and gas. Again, just kind of tying it back to some of the milestones where we should be looking for to know that there's something there.
Well, Peter, a good start was we have two people who told us that ahead of us that this tool could be used for geothermal. One is a professor from University of Waterloo, and the other one is an experienced geothermal expert, who both said we can use this. We are more cautious than that and say, "Well, before using it directly, we like to take a look ourselves." They were very much ahead of us. Now Gui can give you some specifics if you want to.
Sure. Hello, Peter. I think we can go with the schedule of IRAP, so we can conduct some test of flight over known area. We can see in what aspect our sensor can be modified, and also in what aspect our data processing technology can be improved. It is an ongoing process, and we are confident we should be able to achieve what we want to achieve.
Yeah.
Are those test flights going to be in the next, like before year-end, in the next month? What's kind of the timing on that?
Yeah. I am just answering that.
Okay.
What we're going to do is that we already started the process. We already got approval from IRAP. We're already doing it. We're going to be working with their specialist. They are introducing us to laboratories, nano fabrication, all sorts of things that are going to be happening here to build better and better sensors. We're working with the universities. What's going to happen is that once we are going to use the original SFD sensors to do test flights, okay? First, very shortly, I think that it's going to happen in September in Alberta. There are several sites that we can fly over and test the technology. Once that is done, we're going to start the modifications, the finalizing the modifications for the new sensor. There are certain aspects that are shared. You know that there are a number of common elements in fluid deposition and geothermal setting.
The deployment of SFD for geothermal setting will allow the clients to focus on the most favorable subsurface conditions, which is basically porosity connected mainly with permeability, and you want to have a large area that is permeable so that you can optimize your geothermal activities. It's very, very important that you have a large area, because otherwise, your temperature would be used up very, very quickly, and the water would be cooled, and then your geothermal site has to be closed. SFD is an ideal technology to identify the subsurface conditions for heat and fluid circulation. That will increase the chance of success and reduce the overall time and cost, and also you do it in an environmentally friendly manner. The testing is going to take place in September. Once we modified it, we're going to come down also to the U.S.
We're going to fly down. There are a number of sites there. One of them is 1,000 MW, largest in the world. We're going to be flying over those areas as well, and we are going to land in Los Angeles probably or San Francisco. With the plane and the technology, and anybody who wants to come and see us, we're probably going to have a function for our investors down there. That is the plan, actually. Also, Enrique mentioned that we have been blessed by the professors in Waterloo University . These guys are specialists in stress and so on. We are on the right track. There is less and less resistance towards the technology and the technical capabilities of ours. Also, we are working with very reputable geothermal companies now who are looking at us to help them identify these geothermal sites.
Not just one or two projects, but ongoing projects and so on. We have three of those right now, and we believe that we are going to be able to execute one of them this year. Hopefully, that is going to open up a new chapter in our lives, and we should put the results on the website. I totally agree with you. These are very, very important steps in the company's life and its future.
Thanks so much, guys. That was great. Again, appreciate. Really like seeing the revenue and the strong quarter. It really showed your earnings potential. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Let's just push forward.
Your next question is from Stan Trilling from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Hi, George .
Hi, Stan.
One of the things that comes across to me is, and this is something that's concerned me for a while, is that you have too many irons in the fire. You have a limited capital base to handle all of these opportunities. What I would really like to know is do you have a specific plan of direct focus, one, two, three, on which items you're going after and in what type of priority?
Yes. Actually, in the speech or during this conference call, I mentioned number one focus was Nigeria because of the long-term contract opportunity there. I am not talking about CAD 5 million here. Long-term, significant numbers. The number two was Mexico and some of the new relationship that we are establishing with a service company that is taking us basically, I have to be very careful how I word it, but joined us in our quest for getting the contracts done in a number of Latin American countries. We are focusing on the geothermal activities, two or three countries. We never going to have a problem of acquiring the data. Okay? Now that we have these new mapping algorithms developed, we are going to be able to do this much, much faster as long as we are conducting grid surveys.
We are very, very positive and very hopeful that we can produce significant revenue without any change in the current situation of the company. Those are the three main components I would like to mention to you. Stan? Hello?
Can we go to questions, presenters? Your next question would be from Misha Ilk, an individual investor. Your line is open.
Hi, George. Hi, everyone. A quick question, which is really a follow-up to what Dave was asking as well as Stan and to some extent, Peter. Especially with respect to the last question. If you have the contracts in Nigeria signed and possibly one more contract in South America, would it be reasonable to expect that you will be listing on the Nasdaq since you're a technology company? This, I think, would help market the company to institutional investors. What are the benchmarks, if so, that we need to see in terms of the stock price and in terms of the contract volume such that that can be expected to happen?
Misha, it's Eugene. Obviously, we're always looking at that opportunity. The benchmarks are relatively high, but it's going to come down to us executing, as you said, on contracts. We believe once we've executed on two or three contracts, that we should be able to go down that path.
It'll take about three months.
It'll take about three months.
CAD 4 per share.
From the CAD 4 per share after signing of the contracts, of course, obviously, and starting to execute, and that's three more months after that, right?
Yeah.
Okay. Thanks, guys.
We would like to do it, Misha, as fast as possible. It is a priority for us to be listed on a very serious market. Let's put it this way.
Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Misha.
We do have a follow-up question from Stan Trilling from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
I don't know what happened. Either my line got dropped or my voice got shot. Thank you. Thank you for the information on Nigeria. We've been talking about multiple contracts, and I just want to know what is getting in the way of the announcement of the potential contracts. Is it the government? Is it politics? Is it intermediaries? I'm just curious about the mystical curtain that's been put up.
That's a very good question, actually, Stan. The issue is here that we are used to dealing with North American companies. Even if they function or operate in other countries, things are much, much easier. If you recall, some contracts we concluded in North America in two weeks, and we were flying in the next week. It's the way the people operate. In third world countries, it's even harder. The bureaucracy is enormous. Everything is hand delivered, signed. 15 people have to sign one single contract. It's the same in Mexico, the same in Nigeria. If you take a look, this Petroleum Industry Bill that was just now done has been on the table for almost two years. Now finally, they are allocating 30% of all production revenue to the interior or the frontier exploration programs.
As I mentioned, SFD is the number one tool now in Nigeria. We knew that it is happening, it is going to happen. Unfortunately, you cannot control national companies, how they operate or government people, how they negotiate and do things. I think you mentioned it well. It is bureaucracy in a sense that everybody has to be happy, satisfied. You can move the paper to the next people, and so on and so forth, or next branch of government. In Nigeria, you have the national company, you have the frontier exploration people, you have several branches of the national company, IPFL, NPDC, and so on and so forth. Then you have the NPD, which is the major tender board. Then you have the ministry, and on and on and on. Now we are in. We are just waiting for them to give us the green light.
That's all.
Okay. How far along are we with Mexico? Mexico, we actually had a contract with them that I guess just expired. I don't know if it was expired or what happened. Do we have to go through all of the pains and tribulations that we went through before, or is it more streamlined there?
It's more streamlined. I will take that last word that you said. This is Enrique Hung again. We are very optimistic with Pemex. We have an alliance with a service company that is doing services with them, one of the three companies are doing services with them.
Okay.
That's unique. They are the ones that have branches in the whole Latin American world, and we are meeting with them. We're in conversations, we can say, to be like the brothers. They will facilitate. That will tell us. They did the job and I have done the footwork in Mexico, and we are still in the system with Pemex. The lack of activity was justifiable. There's no claim or nothing wrong with the service that Pemex did. In fact, the last question I did was, I sent a list of the discoveries that they have had inside our recommendations in Mexico. That goes from 2016 to 2020. It's more than five or six fields and production, and good activity that we recommended as early as 2012.
Similar to that, we have good results in Bolivia, a discovery that came in in 2020. New in 2021, we have a discovery in Mexico onshore. They are aware of this. The only thing is that they are very slow. We are pushing our way in, and we have creative ways of making this contract work as soon as we possibly can.
Okay, great. The last question has to do with geothermal, and then I'm done. You can shoot me after that. You had mentioned that you think you can execute some sort of contract with a U.S. company on geothermal. Just one question. I don't want to know who it is, but will it be a name that is recognizable to the people in the geothermal industry?
U.S. Most Canada, he means.
Yeah. We have Canadian companies that are very recognizable. They all have doctorates and everything.
The company, he means.
No, the company.
Also recognizable. They have a history of worldwide geothermal plants that have been found, and they have a whole number of people who are experts in geothermal science, basically, and geology. They have built, I think, in one country, they did about 300 MW altogether, 30 MW, 20 MW, 15 MW plants that have been put together. They are here in Alberta now as well, and there are two Alberta companies. We have one overseas company. Two overseas company, one in South America and one in the Middle East. As soon as we are ready, and that's what Dr. Gui is trying to do. As soon as we are ready, when he says we are ready, we are off to the races.
The only good thing about geothermal is that they have the government support.
Yes.
That's paramount. That's very important.
Yes. These companies here in Canada, they all have Just think about it, the IRAP and the NRCan, which is the National Research Council and so on, that we are dealing with and approve the technology. They also approve them for financing, for matching funds. We are talking about CAD 25 million, CAD 50 million, CAD 100 million here each. We are in good situation as far as geothermal is concerned. As Peter said, we will do the test. We'll do the test in Alberta. We'll do the test in California. We know the sites. We know what we need to do. They are going to be working with us, IRAP on this. We are going to present our results properly to them and also to the technical people and the professors.
Hopefully, we're going to be approved for the next funding and the next funding and the next funding and the next funding.
Okay. Thank you, guys. Keep plugging. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much, Stan. Thank you.
Your last question is from the line of Tucker Andersen from Above All Advisors . Your line is open.
Hi, George. Thanks for keeping all of us on the line and answering the questions. It occurred to me that one of the things that's changed pretty dramatically in the last six months is the price of oil. To the extent that COVID not only sort of interrupted the bureaucracies and they had other things on their mind, there was also a question about the long-term demand. The price of oil going up obviously has changed the economics of a lot of these projects. Is that a factor in that maybe they're more likely to be a shorter timeline to approval or not?
Absolutely. They didn't even want to talk to us until the oil went over CAD 40. It's correct. We just don't want any excuses, in a sense. We don't want to have the oil prices an excuse because the national companies cannot stop drilling, okay? Their production is vital to the country. It's usually 40%, on average, of the GDP in developing countries. Bolivia depends on it. Guatemala depends on it. Ecuador depends on it. Algeria, Nigeria, all these countries, they all need to have significant oil revenues. If they don't have it, the country goes into depression economically. That's why it is so important, what you said, is that, yes, the oil price is a major factor, but hopefully now it's going to be a positive thing for us because we can find it faster than anybody else.
That's the key, and our success rate has actually improved. We are doing extremely well in that regard as well.
Yeah. I would think everybody would want to shorten the development cycle as much as possible. Some of the questions about the depression of demand due to COVID, it now looks like it's recovering. Good luck.
Thank you so much, Ben and Tucker, and supporting us. Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. I'm going to turn the call over to George for closing remarks.
In that case, I would like to thank everybody for participating in our conference call. Wishing everybody safety and good health. We are going to be online hopefully very soon with you again. Thank you for your questions. I think this was a good call in terms of getting some revenues in and also that the interest is there and the support is still there from you. We love you all. Thank you so much.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.