Cool Ventures Inc. - Calgary

In 2007, Colin Nikiforuk, Chief Technology Officer of Cool Ventures Inc., began working as General Manager for the Ikhil Joint Venture, a partnership between AltaGas' subsidiary Utility Group Facilities Inc., ATCO Midstream NWT, and the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corp.

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The Joint Venture owned two natural gas wells in the Ikhil gas field, located approximately 50 kilometers northwest of Inuvik, a remote town in the Northwest Territories. As General Manager, Colin was responsible for the operations of the natural gas gathering and processing facilities, as well as the reserves supplying the natural gas.

Since 1999, these two wells had provided local energy in the form of 1.5 Mmcf/d of sweet dry gas to the Northwest Territories Power Commission (NTPC) and Inuvik Gas Ltd., the sole source of natural gas for the 3,500 citizens in Inuvik.    

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In November 2010, one of the two wells at Ikhil ceased to produce due to water entering the wellbore and a preliminary reserve analysis indicated that the remaining reserves volumes were significantly below previous estimates. Thus began many sleepless nights for Colin as he evaluated options for a long-term energy solution for the Inuvik community.

The immediate solution was to truck in propane or LNG. Colin began assessing different small-scale LNG technologies and was surprised to find them expensive and unsuitable. 

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By October 2011, as Inuvik Gas commissioned a propane air system to provide a short-term, backup energy supply, Colin was working on creating a new refrigeration technology that could be configured for simple, robust, and cost-effective small-scale LNG production. This ultimately led to Colin's invention of the Modified Aqua Ammonia Absorption ("MA3™") concept in 2015.

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Shortly thereafter, a chance introduction led Colin to meet George de Boon, and subsequently, George reviewed the MA3™ concept. George, an accomplished entrepreneur (implemented the first oilfield CO2 miscible flood, jointly introduced the use of multi-stage fracing), saw the brilliance of Colin's design and in 2016 helped fund the creation of the small-scale LNG pilot facility which proved the viability of the MA3™ technology.

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In March 2021, the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation selected MA3™ as the technology to be used for LNG production as well as NGL extraction in the Inuvialuit Energy Security Project ("IESP"), which will provide long-term energy supply to the Inuvik community. The IESP is expected to be completed in 2023, restoring energy security to Inuvik 13 years after it became threatened in 2010.