NXT Energy Solutions (TSE:SFD) said it is pursuing growth in its airborne hydrocarbon exploration business following what Chief Executive Officer Gerry Sheehan described as a commercial turnaround in 2025.
Speaking at a company presentation, Sheehan said NXT’s Stress Field Detection, or SFD, technology is designed to identify trapped fluids in the subsurface from aircraft-based surveys conducted onshore or offshore. The company’s sensors are flown at about 10,000 feet on an aircraft traveling roughly 400 miles per hour, enabling surveys to be completed rapidly compared with other geophysical methods, he said.
Sheehan said the company has operated commercially for about 20 years and has achieved an approximately 81% prediction strength in recommendations for hydrocarbon drilling locations. NXT has recommended 37 independent drilling locations over the past 10 to 12 years, of which 30 were commercially successful, according to Sheehan.
Technology and exploration applications
NXT’s SFD technology measures changes in subsurface stress fields associated with fluid accumulations, Sheehan said. The system can identify both structural traps and stratigraphic traps, which he described as more difficult to locate but potentially as significant as structural traps.
The company deploys three independent sensor systems on its aircraft to reduce false positives. NXT recently increased its sampling rate to approximately 8,000 samples per second from 2,000 samples per second, a change Sheehan said is intended to support the use of artificial intelligence and machine interpretation techniques.
Sheehan pointed to a 2017 Gulf of Mexico survey as an example of the technology’s application. NXT conducted the survey at its own cost as a speculative project and identified a signal that was later associated with Talos Energy’s Zama field. Sheehan said Zama has approximately 670 million barrels of proven oil reserves.
The company can also integrate its survey data with other geophysical and geological information, Sheehan said, allowing customers to use SFD results alongside existing exploration data.
2025 financial and operational changes
Sheehan said 2025 marked a turnaround year for NXT, with SFD revenue reaching approximately C$16.4 million, compared with C$0.64 million in the prior year. He said the company generated C$1.2 million in cash flow and free cash flow of C$0.07 per share during 2025.
The company also acquired full ownership of its Citation jet aircraft and the rights to its SFD technology during the year. Sheehan said those moves eliminated dependency on third-party logistics and removed royalty or licensing obligations related to the technology.
- NXT reported net working capital of just over C$2 million.
- Cash and short-term holdings were C$1.72 million.
- Long-term debt had largely been eliminated, with about C$500,000 of debt remaining, according to Sheehan.
- Insiders own approximately 52.5% of the company, he said.
Sheehan also cited trailing-12-month revenue of C$2.34 million and free cash flow per share of negative C$0.01 through June 30, which he attributed to investment in surveys currently underway and follow-up work planned for 2027.
Active surveys and growth plans
NXT has two surveys in progress, including one in Africa and one in South Asia that Sheehan said was expected to conclude during the week of the presentation. He said the African work is being performed for a large national oil company that has previously used NXT’s services, while the South Asian assignment represents repeat business with a customer relationship dating back 10 to 12 years.
Responding to questions from Jerome Hass, portfolio manager at Lightwater Partners, Sheehan said the company sees the African relationship as potentially developing into a larger program. He also said NXT has experienced inbound interest tied to energy-security concerns and the industry’s reserve-replacement deficit.
“There’s a shortage coming, and the only way of finding oil and gas is drilling holes in the ground,” Sheehan said. “We can help with that.”
Western Canada data strategy
Beyond its fee-for-service business, NXT is evaluating what Sheehan called a “verticals” strategy using its proprietary survey-data library. The company holds more than 50,000 kilometers of SFD data in the Western Canadian Basin and another 130,000 kilometers internationally, he said.
NXT has reviewed its Western Canadian data and identified roughly 15 to 20 prospects across Alberta, British Columbia and farther north. The next planned step is to acquire land positions, Sheehan said. The company intends to contribute the value of its data while limiting its own capital investment, potentially partnering with other parties and retaining a meaningful share of any upside.
Sheehan said NXT plans to continue using cash for business development, artificial-intelligence research and diversification of its data-acquisition and customer base.
About NXT Energy Solutions (TSE:SFD)
NXT Energy Solutions Inc is a Calgary-based technology company whose proprietary airborne SFD® survey system, applied in numerous basins around the world, uses the principles of quantum mechanics to infer stress anomalies of exploration interest. The method can be used both onshore and offshore to remotely identify areas conducive to fluid entrapment in order to recommend areas with commercial hydrocarbon and/or geothermal potential. The SFD® survey system enables our clients to focus their exploration decisions concerning land commitments, data acquisition expenditures and prospect prioritization on areas with the greatest potential.
