Comstock Resources Inc . (NYSE:CRK) reported a challenging first quarter in 2024, grappling with weak natural gas prices despite operational advancements. The company's oil and gas sales were recorded at $336 million with a cash flow of $182 million. Comstock Resources emphasized its strategic response to the current market, including cost reductions and adjustments to its drilling program, as it aims to strengthen its position in anticipation of increased natural gas demand.
Key Takeaways
- Comstock Resources reported oil and gas sales of $336 million and a cash flow of $182 million in Q1 2024.
- The company has added 198,000 net acres to its Western Haynesville play.
- A total of 18 wells were turned to sales in the quarter, with plans to extend the average lateral length beyond 10,000 feet.
- The borrowing base was reaffirmed at $2 billion, with liquidity increased to $1.3 billion after a bond offering.
- Comstock Resources aims to reduce greenhouse gas and methane emissions and has implemented various measures to do so.
- The company is adjusting to lower natural gas prices by reducing rig count and suspending dividends.
- Capital expenditures for 2024 are expected to decrease by 33-41% from 2023 levels, with a hedge target of 50% of expected production.
Company Outlook
- Comstock Resources has over 30 years of drilling inventory, well-positioned for the growing LNG export market.
- The company plans to manage its core area effectively, focusing on being a low-cost producer.
- Financial guidance for the second quarter and full year 2024 includes expected capital expenditures and operating costs adjustments.
- The company's Western Haynesville asset may be more expensive to develop but offers higher gas recovery rates.
- Major acquisitions are now in the past, with the current focus on infill and optimizing the existing assets.
Bearish Highlights
- The company faced financial losses in the first quarter due to weak natural gas prices.
- In response to the market conditions, Comstock Resources has reduced its rig count and suspended dividends.
Bullish Highlights
- Comstock Resources has a substantial drilling inventory and is strategically positioned to supply the LNG market.
- The company has seen cost reductions and increased estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) in the Western Haynesville region.
Misses
- Despite operational progress, the financial performance was impacted by the lower natural gas prices.
Q&A Highlights
- Comstock Resources plans to drill a horseshoe well later in the year and is looking to eliminate shorter lateral wells in favor of longer ones.
- The company does not plan to aggressively drill despite the profitability of wells costing $600 or less, focusing on the long-term goal of becoming a significant LNG supplier.
- Management expressed confidence in the Haynesville wells' performance compared to the Bossier wells and is adjusting well spacing and pad sizes accordingly.
In conclusion, Comstock Resources Inc. is navigating through a tough market environment with a clear strategy focused on operational efficiency and long-term market positioning. The company's efforts to reduce costs and optimize its asset base, combined with its commitment to environmental responsibility, suggest a proactive approach to the challenges and opportunities ahead in the natural gas sector.
InvestingPro Insights
Comstock Resources Inc. (CRK) is currently facing a complex financial landscape, as reflected in recent InvestingPro data and analysis. With a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, the company operates under a significant debt burden and is quickly burning through cash, which is crucial to consider for investors looking at the long-term viability of CRK.
InvestingPro Tips indicate that analysts are concerned about the company's financial health. A total of 9 analysts have revised their earnings forecasts downwards for the upcoming period, and they do not anticipate the company will be profitable this year. This aligns with the company's recent report of financial losses in the first quarter of 2024 due to weak natural gas prices.
Key InvestingPro Data metrics further illustrate the financial challenges CRK is facing:
- The P/E Ratio stands at 45.18, which indicates that the company is trading at a high earnings multiple, potentially suggesting a premium valuation compared to earnings.
- Revenue has seen a significant decline over the last twelve months as of Q1 2024, with a decrease of 60.72%, highlighting the impact of market conditions on the company's top-line performance.
- Despite these challenges, CRK has demonstrated a strong return over the last three months, with a price total return of 29.06%, signaling some investor optimism in the short term.
For investors seeking a deeper analysis, there are additional InvestingPro Tips available, which can provide more nuanced insights into CRK's financial health and market potential. Use coupon code PRONEWS24 to get an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription, and gain access to all the valuable tips and metrics that InvestingPro has to offer.
Full transcript - Comstock Resources Inc (CRK) Q1 2024:
Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Comstock Resources Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After this speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. Now I'd like to hand the conference to your first speaker today, Jay Allison, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Jay Allison: Thank you. Welcome to the Comstock Resources first quarter 2024 financial and operating results conference call. You can view a slide presentation during or after this call by going to our website at www.comstockresources.com and downloading the quarterly results presentation. There you will find a presentation titled first quarter 2024 results. I'm Jay Allison, Chief Executive Officer of Comstock, and with me is Roland Burns, our President and Chief Financial Officer; Dan Harrison, our Chief Operating Officer; and Ron Mills, our VP of Finance and Investor Relations. Please refer to Slide 2 on our presentation to note that our discussion today will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities laws. While we believe the expectations in such statements to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. If you would turn to Slide 3. Our corporate team of 255 strong wants to thank you for joining the call today. We've been very active over the last 100 days with all hands focused on continuing to bat them down the hatches in order to manage our assets and continue to create value during this weak period for natural gas. Our actions and achievements in the last 100 days have involved many of our stakeholders, including our bondholders, our bank group, our major stakeholder, Jerry Jones, and our service providers. On March 15, we closed on an acquisition that enabled us to add 198,000 net acres to our Western Haynesville play, which were substantially held by production, so we do not have to increase our drilling activity in order to retain the acreage. In the quarter, we turned four new Western Haynesville wells to sales. Each one looks fantastic. We're now drilling on two well pads, which will reduce our cost, and we recently also reduced our drilling days to 54. Dan Harrison will give a full report on our progress on the 450,000 net acre play later in the call. On March 25, the Jones family purchased an additional $100.5 million of Comstock stock that demonstrated their confidence in our business plan, including the Western Haynesville acreage acquisition. On April 2nd, our bondholders stepped up in our $400 million new senior notes offering. The bonds were priced tighter to treasuries than any of our other bonds that we have issued since 1999. Then on April 30th, our bank lending group reaffirmed our borrowing base of $2 billion with a $1.5 billion commitment that has allowed us now to have $1.3 billion of liquidity. With the demand for natural gas growing in the future to service increased power generation, industrial and LNG demand as well as future demand to power AI, we're well-positioned to deliver clean, responsible produced natural gas from our 800,000 net acres in the Haynesville. We have over 30 years of drilling inventory, which we are adding to, as we unlock value in our 450,000 net acres in the Western Haynesville one well at a time. I want to thank you for supporting your company, Comstock Resources. On Slide 3, we'll summarize the highlights of the first quarter. The financial results continue to be heavily impacted by the continued weak natural gas prices. Oil and gas sales, including hedging, were $336 million in the quarter and we generated cash flow from operations of $182 million or $0.65 per share and adjusted EBITDAX was $230 million. Our adjusted net loss was $0.03 per share for the quarter. To strengthen our balance sheet, we added $100.5 million to our liquidity with a private placement of equity with our major stockholder, Jerry Jones. We continue to have strong results from our drilling program. In the first quarter, we drilled 16 successful operated Haynesville and Bossier Shale horizontal wells in the quarter with an average lateral operated Haynesville and Bossier Shale horizontal wells with an average IP rate of 27 million cubic feet per day and average lateral length of 909,227 feet. We're continuing to progress in our Western Angel Historic exploratory play. We added 198,000 net acres to our expansive Western Angel acreage position in the first quarter, increasing our total acreage position in the play to over 450,000 net acres. Since we last reported earnings, we have turned four additional wells to sales in the Western Haynesville and now have 12 successful wells in our new play. The Glass Farley, Harrison, and Ingram Mark wells were all completed in the Haynesville Shale and each had IP rates of 35 million to 38 million cubic feet per day. We currently have two rigs running into play, both of which are drilling on two well pads. We continue to lower our cost to drill these wells, in our last well, we were able to reduce the drilling days to 54 days. I'll now have Roland go over the first quarter financial results. Roland?
Roland Burns: All right. Thanks, Jay. On Slide 4, we cover our first quarter financial results. Our production in the quarter of 1.5 Bcfe per day increased 10% from the first quarter of 2023. The low natural gas prices resulted in our oil and gas sales in the quarter of $336 million declining 14% from 2023's first quarter level despite the 10% production increase. EBITDAX for the quarter was $230 million and we generated $182 million of cash flow during the first quarter. We have reported an adjusted net loss of $8.5 million for the first quarter or $0.03 per share as compared to income of $92 million in the first quarter of 2023. Slide 5, we kind of break down our natural gas price realization in the quarter. During the first quarter, the quarterly NYMEX settlement price averaged $2.24, which was $0.17 lower than the average Henry Hub spot price in the quarter of the daily prices of $2.41. Our realized gas price during the first quarter averaged $2.06 reflecting a $0.18 differential to the settlement price and a $0.23 differential to our reference price. In the first quarter, we were 26% hedged, so this improved our realized price in the quarter to $2.40. In the volatile quarter, we also lost $800,000 on our third-party marketing activities. Slide 6. We update our hedge position. Since we last reported, we've been very busy adding some hedges to build out our hedge positions for next year and 2026 as well as improving our -- the amount that we've hedged for the fourth quarter of this year. We added $300 million a day of swaps covering the period of April, I mean October 2024 through December 2026, at an average price of $3.51 per Mcf. We added $75 million a day of swaps just for '25 at an average swap price of $3.50 and then we added 150 million a day of callers in 2025 with a floor price of $3.50 and an average ceiling price of $3.80. We've also had some in 2026. We have $250 million a day of collars that we added for 2026, which had a floor price of $3.50 and an average selling price of $3.98. So, as a result of this activity, we're almost 50% hedged for the length of 9,845 feet and returned to sales 18 successful operated Haynesville. 50% hedged for the fourth quarter of this year and we're about a third hedged for each of 2025 and 2026. So, we'll continue to look to opportunistically add to our hedge positions over time in order to get close to that 50% hedge target that we have. We continue to put in positions that give us very meaningful floor protection. As you can see, that's kind of sitting around the $3.50 area. On Slide 7, we detail our operating cost per Mcfe and our EBITDAX margin in the first quarter. Our operating cost averaged $0.76 per Mcfe produced, which was $0.05 lower than our fourth quarter rate. We saw some improvement in our production and ad valorem taxes which were down 10%, but our other costs were up a little bit to slightly offset that. Our EBITDAX margin after hedging came in at 68% in the first quarter, that was a similar margin that we had in the fourth quarter despite the fact that we had lower prices in the first quarter of this year. On Slide 8, we recap our spending on drilling and other development activity. For the quarter, we spent a total of $256 million on our drilling activities, including $252 million that directly relates to the Haynesville and Bossier shale drilling program. And then we only spent $4 million on other development activity in the quarter. We drilled 16 or 14.3 net wells in our Haynesville program, and we turned 18 or 16.3 operated wells to sales in the quarter. These wells had an average IP rate of $27 million per day. In the quarter, we also – we did have four short lateral Bossier wells, which were drilled, which probably diluted the numbers a little bit, but they were drilled to hold acreage. On Slide 9. We recap our balance sheet at the end of the first quarter. We ended the quarter with $540 million in borrowings outstanding on our credit facility, giving us $2.7 billion in total debt, including our outstanding senior notes. As Jay referenced, on March 25th, we sold 12.5 million shares to our majority stockholder for $125 million in a private placement. The proceeds from that offering have offset some of the cost of our Western Haynesville acreage acquisition program. Just after the end of the first quarter, we issued $400 million of additional senior notes due in 2029, and we used the proceeds to pay down the borrowings under our bank facility. The bond offering increased our liquidity on a pro forma basis to $1.3 billion. And then lastly, on April 30th, our bank reaffirmed our borrowing base at $2 billion and then our elected commitment of $1.5 billion kind of remained the same. I'll now turn the call over to Dan to discuss the operations in more detail.
Dan Harrison: Thank you, Roland. Over on Slide 10, this is our current drilling inventory that where we're at the end of the first quarter. Our total operated inventory currently has 1,702 gross locations, 1,296 net locations, which equates to a 76% average working interest across the operated inventory. Of the non-operated inventory, we have 1,254 gross locations and 165 net locations, which represents a 13% average working interest on the non-operated inventory. The drilling inventory is split between Haynesville and Bossier locations. We have it split down into our four different groups. Our short laterals are up to 5,000 foot long, medium laterals at 5,000 to 8,500 feet, long laterals at 8,500 feet to 10,000 feet, and then our extra-long laterals for everything over 10,000 feet. If you look at each group in our gross operated inventory, we have 278 short laterals, 348 medium laterals, 433 long laterals, and 643 extra-long laterals. This gross operated inventory is evenly split with 51% in the Haynesville and 49% in the Bossier. 63% of our gross operated inventory has laterals longer than 8,500 feet and 38% of our gross operated inventory or the 643 locations have lateral lengths surpassing 10,000 feet. The average lateral length in inventory now stands at 9,015 feet. This is up slightly from 8,971 feet that we had at the end of the fourth quarter. Based on our near-term activity levels, this inventory provides us with over 30 years of future drilling locations. On Slide 11 is a chart outlining progress to date on our average lateral length drilled, based on the wells that we have turned to sales. During the first quarter, we turned 18 wells to sales with an average lateral length of 9,229 feet. The individual lengths range from 4,228 feet up to 14,308 feet. Our record longest laterals still stands at 15,726 feet. 12 of the 18 wells returned sales during the quarter had laterals exceeding 8,500 feet, including four with laterals longer than 13,500 feet. As Roland mentioned earlier, our 9,229-foot average lateral length this quarter represents a departure from the upward trend we've been on for the last several years. This is due to a handful of short laterals that were drilled on some isolated sections to preserve acreage, while we're in this low gas price environment. We are not planning to drill any additional short lateral wells and we do expect our average lateral length will exceed 10,000 feet for the remaining wells that we turn to sales this year. Included in our 18 wells turned to sales for the quarter are four wells that are located on our Western Haynesville acreage. These four wells had an average lateral length of 9,608 feet. To recap our longer lateral wells, to date, we have drilled 91 wells with laterals over 10,000 feet, 33 wells with laterals over 14,000 feet. On Slide 12, we recap our new well activity. Since we last provided our well results in mid-February, we have turned to sales and tested 14 new wells since our last conference call. This group of wells had individual IP rates ranging from 9 million up to 38 million cubic feet a day with an average test rate of 25 million cubic feet a day. The average lateral length was 8,031 feet, with the individual laterals ramped from 4,228 feet up to 14,137 feet. Since our last call, we have turned four additional wells to sales in the Western Haynesville. The last of Farley, the Harrison, and the Ingram Martin wells achieved IP rates of 3-5 million to 38 million cubic feet a day, and the Haynesville shale. Regarding our current activity levels, we are now running five rigs. This is after we dropped two rigs during the first quarter, and we are running two full-time frac crews. Two of these five rigs are currently drilling in the Western Haynesville and both of these rigs are now drilling on the first of our two well pads, which will yield increased efficiencies. Now that we have our two Western Haynesville rigs drilling on two well pads, we will not have any additional wells starting to fail in the Western Highlands until early in the fourth quarter. Slide 13 summarizes our D&C calls through the first quarter for our benchmark long lateral wells. This is the wells located on our legacy core East Texas and North Louisiana acreage. Our benchmark wells cover all laterals greater than 8,500 feet long. During the quarter, we turned 14 wells to sales that were on our core acreage at eight of these 14 wells fell into our benchmark long lateral group. In the first quarter, our D&C cost averaged $1,501 per foot on these benchmark wells, which reflects a 1% increase compared to the fourth quarter of last year. Our first quarter drilling cost averaged $714 a foot, which is a 17% increase compared to the fourth quarter. The higher drilling costs were primarily the result of all eight of our benchmark long lateral wells during this quarter and are being concentrated in our higher drilling cost areas. Our first quarter completion cost came in at $7.87 a foot. This represents a 10% decrease compared to the fourth quarter and this mainly stems from the lower gas prices, which has led to the lower basin wide completion activity and lower frac costs. As stated earlier, we did drop the two rigs during the first quarter and we are now running five rigs. Our current outlook has us holding steady at five rigs for the remainder of the year. On the completion side, we are today running the two full time frac crews and we will stay at this level through the end of second quarter. However, with the lower rig activity, we anticipate only working the equivalent of 1.5 frac crews during the second half of the year. On Slide 14, we highlight our continued improvement related to greenhouse gas and methane emissions. We have reported a greenhouse gas intensity of 3.45 kilograms CO2 equivalent per BOE of production. This is a 1% improvement versus 2022 and increases to -- increasing the improvement to 4% over the past two years. We have reported a methane emission intensity of 0.04%, which is an 11% improvement versus 2022 and a 26% improvement over the past two years. We achieved those emissions improvements despite our increased focus on the higher intensity Western Haynesville. In addition, our turn to sales lateral feet increased by 15% in 2023. Adjusting for lateral length footage completed for our turn-to-sales wells, our greenhouse gas emissions per lateral foot turn-to-sales improved 16% last year and 21% over the past two years, while our methane emissions per lateral foot turned-to-sales improved 25% last year and 38% over the past monitoring technology at almost 100% of our production sites, which earned us the ability to certify our gas as responsibly sourced. Our natural gas dual-fuel powered frac fleets eliminated approximately 10.6 million gallons of diesel by utilizing natural gas and offsetting approximately 21,800 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Our dual-fuel drilling rigs eliminated approximately 460,000 gallons of diesel by utilizing natural gas and offset approximately 1,400 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. We have installed instrument air on approximately 97% of our newly constructed production facilities, mitigating approximately 5,500 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Emissions from equipment leaks have decreased to 97% since 2021. This is from 33,664 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions in '21 down to just 994 metric tons in 2023. I'll now turn the call back over to Jay.
Jay Allison: Thank you, Ken. Thank you, Roland. I will direct you to Slide 15, where we summarize our outlook for 2024. We've taken a number of steps in response to significantly lower natural gas prices this year. During the first quarter, we have released two of our operated rigs, as Dan said, reducing our rig count to five rigs. We also released one of our frac spreads, reducing our frac fleet to two spreads. We no longer have any long-term commitments for our pressure-pumping services. With those steps in 2024, CapEx is expected to be down 33% to 41% from the 2023 level. We suspended our quarterly dividend, saving approximately $140 million a year of dividend payments. In late March, our majority stakeholder, Jerry Jones, invested an additional $100.5 million into the company through an equity private placement. Starting in late February, we've added significantly, as Roland said, to our hedge position starting in the fourth quarter of 2024 and extending through the end of 2026. We're targeting a hedge level of 50% of our expected production level. In early April, we further enhanced our liquidity position with a $400 million senior notes offering. We'll continue to maintain our very strong financial liquidity, which totaled just over $1.3 billion at the end of the first quarter pro forma for the recent notes offering. Our industry-leading low-cost structure is an asset in the current low natural gas price environment as our cost structure is substantially lower than the other public natural gas producers. We remain very focused on proving up our Western Haynesville play, continuing to add to our extensive acreage position at this exciting play. At the end of the first quarter, our Western Haynesville acreage position, as we stated earlier, totaled over 450,000 net acres. We believe that we're building a great asset in the Western Haynesville where we will be well-positioned to benefit from the substantial growth in demand for natural gas in our region that is on the horizon driven by the growth in LNG exports that begins to show up in the second half of next year. The Wall Street Journal on January 2nd, 2024 tracked 120 winners and losers by looking at how selected global stock indexes, bond ETFs, currencies, and commodities performed for the year 2023. NYMEX natural gas was the next to the last worst performer. Then on April 1st, 2024, The Wall Street Journal tracked the same group of 120 NYMEX natural gas was the worst performer for the entire group. That is a stark reality over the past 15 months. So the question is, how we can manage in this weak price environment and exit a much stronger company when demand for domestic as well as global natural gas arrives in 2025 and beyond? We have that answer. It is to manage our proven quality core area, continue to be a low-cost producer, continue to protect our liquidity and balance sheet, and now continue to develop our 450,000 net acre Western Haynesville play that is to date has shown great promise. I'll now have Ron provide some specific guidance for the rest of the year. Ron?
Roland Burns: Thanks, Jay. On Slide 16, we provide the financial guidance for the second quarter and the full year 2024. The second quarter CapEx expected - on the D&C side is expected to be $200 million to $250 million and our full-year D&C CapEx guidance remains unchanged at $750 million to $850 million. The lower D&C spending versus last year is related to the release of the two drilling rigs earlier this year in response to the low gas prices. With the large lease acquisitions now completed, we anticipate spending $2 million to $5 million in the second quarter and $70 million to $80 million over the course of 2024. Capital expenditures related to Pinnacle Gas Services will be funded by our partner and are expected to total $30 million to $40 million in the second quarter $125 million to $150 million for the year, which is unchanged. On the operating cost side, our guidance for LOE, GTC, and production and ad valorem taxes remain unchanged from February, as does our DD&A. The only real change on our guidance on the cost side is related to interest expense, which has been increased slightly to reflect the impact of the notes offering we completed in April. Lastly, on the tax side, we still expect the tax rate to be 22% to 25%, but now we expect to defer 98% to 100% and really almost virtually 100% of our reported taxes this year, which is up from the prior range of 95% to 100%. I'll now turn the call back over to Andrea to answer questions from analysts who cover the stock.
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Derrick Whitfield with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Derrick Whitfield: Good morning, Roland. Thanks for your time.
Roland Burns: Good morning.
Derrick Whitfield: I have two questions for you and those relate to your Western Haynesville asset. First, given the depressed price environment we're seeing at present, I want to make sure we're properly thinking about the capital efficiency of the investment relative to the industry. If we think about your cost and recovery metrics based on the breadcrumbs provided you've noted the Western Haynesville is being developed at a cost. It's about 2X out of your legacy Haynesville with a recovery that's about three and a half to four bcf per thousand foot in that ballpark. So that's 3000 per foot or let's call it 3.5 to four bcf per thousand foot of EUR. So if we compare that to industry metrics of 2000 per foot or two bcf per thousand foot, it would seem to us you're about 50% more expensive, but you recover 75% to 100% more gas. Is that fair? And again, I'm just trying to frame the opportunity as we know it today.
Roland Burns: Yes. Derek, this is Roland. I don't think that's too unfair. I mean, I think the difference really is the larger reserves that we're finding in the Western Haynesville, but it also takes longer to get them out. We're not flowing the Western Haynesville wells at double the rates of the traditional Haynesville. It's possible we could, but we're choosing not to do that in this early stage, especially with the low-price environment. So, I think you would really view it. I think we think overall it's a very similar type of return right now compared to the best part of our traditional Haynesville, and price superior to our Tier 2, Tier 3 part of the Haynesville but it's longer-term. It's an investment in the future. And so we still really have been very encouraged by the well performance and the EURs that they appear to be earning with their longer-term performance.
Jay Allison: Derek, I'll comment. We have 11 to 12 wells turned to sales and we've only started drilling two wells prepared recently. We've only had one well that's been producing over two years. It's early on in the play, but what we have seen so far is exemplary, whether it's IP rates, whether it's the lack of decline, whether it's EURs. In any new play like this, I mean, I think we all agree that the resource is there. The question is, can you get it out economically? In any birth of any life, particularly like the core of the Haynesville in 2008, I mean, the more wells you drill, the lower the costs are. I think Dan has done a good job. I mean, our first wells were 80 days to drill. Now there the last one has been 54. These costs are coming down. I think we're getting better and better and better. Dan?
Dan Harrison: Yes. I'll just add that, when you compare the two areas, if you look at the costs like you mentioned in the core, those are pretty much set. We kind of know what we're going to drill them for, absent any problems. You are making some small improvements here and there. But you compare that to the Western Haynesville, where if you look at the cost like you mentioned, that's where we started. Those costs are coming down, right? On the Western Haynesville side, you are seeing the cost really move down, which is changing the economics and you are not really seeing that in the core. Those are kind of fixed, right? We've been optimized for a while.
Roland Burns: Derek, the core goes many more from 1.2 to maybe 2.2. I mean, you may see 2.3, but like you said, 2.0, that's a Blue Ribbon well in the core. I think what we're trying to derisk in the Western Haynesville is that a large portion of that acreage is competitive, if not potentially better than the best of the best at the core. That's what we're trying to prove up.
Derrick Whitfield: Terrific, color. And then as my follow-up, I just wanted to ask if you could help to frame how we should think about the amount of activity that's required to HBP or protect the resource in light of your recent leasing success.
Roland Burns: Yes. On the 198,000 acres the net acres we acquired, I'd say, 95% of that's HBP. The other, say, 5%, those are round numbers. They're like 15-year leases. So that does not change our drilling at all as far as our schedule for 2025, '26, '27 at all. And then as far as the acreage that we've leased over the last 3.5 years, we've always said that we would really like to add a rig at year. If we do that over several years, then at least we'd see that acreage. We're not pushed at all to add rigs in a low-price environment. Even if prices are high, we're not pushed to add rigs at all to HBP, that acreage.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Bertrand Donnes with Truist. Please go ahead.
Bertrand Donnes: Good morning team. Just wanted to start off asking around the kind of exciting potential data center demand. You guys already have some LNG agreements. Obviously, you have LNG corridor exposure, but you've taken the indirect benefit strategy. Just was wondering if when it comes to data center demand, is there any interest at Comstock really taking direct maybe long-term agreement with a plant or something like that? And maybe could you tie in Quantum (NASDAQ:QMCO) midstream build-out for that purpose?
Jay Allison: Yes. That's a great question. We're really excited about the Western Haynesville build volume because its got, there is a lot of potential customers that are approaching us, including recently even some data centers that really are looking to build their centers, where they can have uninterrupted supply and power supply. It's an exciting new element to kind of add to the LNG demand and other industrial users power generators and we do see shifting, especially our Western Haynesville, I think we'll be selling a lot of that gas in the future to our direct customers and then potentially using our relationship in the midstream venture to add some infrastructure as needed to be able to service those. So, it's a really exciting area for us. We really want to have a diverse basket of customers in the future and have much, much less sales to other marketing companies or aggregators and LNG will be a part of it. I think we've got some exciting relationships there developing and then hopefully other industrial users and utilities will be part of our customer base.
Roland Burns: If you look at that too, 90% plus of our Western Haynesville is dedicated. That's a big advantage if you're looking for gas, whether for a data center to provide power or take away as utility or LNG contracts.
Bertrand Donnes: That's a really good point. The other question just maybe around the Jones transaction That's a really good point of that. The other question, just maybe around the Jones transaction, could you maybe go into how that came together? Where they ready before you found the acreage? Was the acreage part of the push to maybe get the agreement? I don't know, should we expect more cowboy cash in the future or is this kind of a onetime thing?
Roland Burns: I think come August, it'll be four years that we have been had a group of landsmen leasing acreage in this area and we kind of set the boundaries. As those boundaries have expanded, we've looked at where the kind of the north, south, east, west sides are and you work all those sides to come in inward. It just happened that this year, in 2024, we were able to pull off several of the larger transactions. We did that in 2022. That was a big acquisition in '22 that we made. We picked up the Pinnacle plant in that 145-mile high-pressure pipeline. And then this year, we're able to close another acquisition. But I think, in our opinion, all of the major acquisitions that we would be looking at, they're in our rearview mirror. They're closed. And what we're doing now with our land group is just kind of cleaning up. What we think we've secured all the parameters, which is cleaning up the infill.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Jacob Roberts with TPH. Please go ahead.
Jacob Roberts: Good morning. Maybe circling back to Derek's first question, just thinking about the cost improvements on the core position over time. Wondering if you could speak to some of the levers that might be pulled in the Western Haynesville, that could also bring those costs down. Just looking for more specifics around, what we could expect to see to get those days to drill lower or cost lower.
Dan Harrison: Yes. We've got kind of two things working in the Western Haynesville. Obviously, the depth that's deeper, the vertical hole section has a really thick Travis Peak section. We've made a lot of improvements with the bits that we're using. Getting better ROPs through that section, which takes several days, that's been part of the progress we've made. We have changed our casing design a little bit that saved us some time. We've also -- and in the lateral, it's really the temperature that we've said many times. We've had a lot of really big improvements that have allowed us to handle the temperature. We're still making those improvements and that's where we see the additional day savings moving forward from where we're at today.
A – Jay Allison: We have seen that in the numbers. In other words, as we drill these wells, we have seen this cost improvement. We've also seen a lot of upside in our EURs. Both of those metrics are going in the right direction.
A – Ronald Burns: And Jake, the other thing I would add is, Jay mentioned and Dan, both, we're currently drilling with both of our rigs on two well pads. In addition to the temperature being a key, the multi-well drilling pads should end up providing efficiencies like they do in all the plays as well.
A – Jay Allison: Remember, we started out drilling Bossier. As we said during this call, the four wells that we just put on, they're Haynesville wells. You're a little bit of a difference in drilling as you derisk both the Bossier and Haynesville.
Jacob Roberts: Great. I appreciate the color. Maybe staying on the same topic. I was wondering if you could comment on any variation in completion design that you might have pursued of the dozen wells or so that are online, and if you could offer any insight into what you think a full field development design might look like?
A – Jay Allisson: That's a really good question. I'll kind of start with the last question. Full field development, that's, I'd say, we haven't got too deep into thinking about that because that is down the roadways with the plan for us to drill out, basically just to drill out the acreage and get it held. We still have a few singles to drill, but we're drilling as many two-well pads as possible. On the completion design, we have pumped a larger frac design on this last well that we turned to sales, the Ingram Martin, just a larger job. The perforation the cluster spacing number of personnel that was the same, but just a bigger loading, more water, more sand. We just wanted to get the clock started and see how that well is going to perform versus the first 11 that we turned to sales. Nothing really too different that we're doing on the completion design down here versus in the core. We'll just kind of continue to get our production data and we'll depend on what it tells us. We'll see if we need to make any changes but right now, I think what we have works pretty well. We're just not looking to do anything drastic right now.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next comes from Atidrip Modak from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Atidrip Modak: Good morning team. Thanks for taking my questions. It seems like you moved to more spot frac fleets for the rest of the year. Can you provide any color on the cost savings flexibility that brings to your operations? Maybe touch on if there are any efficiency-related concerns or not associated with that?
A – Jay Allisson: We've dropped to the two rigs. We didn't have a need for as many frac crews, one. But we did -- it's obviously a squeeze on the frac crews with the number of rigs dropping dramatically and we have obviously gotten some concessions on pricing just due to the frac activity and we've got a really good relationship with the frac provider that we got now. So that's probably, I think, helped us a little bit with the pricing that we've been able to put into place for the rest of the year.
Atidrip Modak: Got it. Understood. And then as you think about the macro here for gas prices, any updated thoughts you can provide around capital allocation strategy and balance sheet management with the sensitivity to gas prices as you are seeing?
A – Jay Allison: Yes. We continue, of course, to monitor that and we've had we have not only fairly volatile NYMEX prices, but also spot prices that can be very volatile during the months, based on how much gas is needed and where. There's definitely, we strategically do some shut-ins every now and then. It's usually for a day or two if we don't like spot prices. We'll continue to be able to monitor that and react to that. We've delayed turn to sales, sometimes not to open them up in a spot market type scenario and wait for a first of the month type. We've tried to manage within the then to maximize the realizations in this really weak environment and continue to have the ability to change the amount of rigs we're running. We definitely have the ability to defer turning wells to sales. All of those are still in the toolkit as we look to navigate these next, upcoming six months of expected weakness. At the same time, wanting to preserve the company's ability to benefit from the stronger prices, which we've already started to lock into starting in the fourth quarter.
A – Ronald Burns: I think the key is we do have that ability. Like we said earlier in the conference call, our frac commitments, we don't have any frac commitments that are very long-term. We can toggle those. Our frac provider has been for Comstock, very a big backer. So if we need to delay some of those fracs to the latter part of the year, then we'll have the choice to do that.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers. Please go ahead.
Noel Parks: Hi, good morning. A lot of interesting questions and that got me thinking. And I was wondering, you are being at the two-year mark. I guess a little beyond for your first Western Haynesville well. I'm just wondering whether there are any surprises in the type curve as you've gotten more data and with the tweaks you've made to completions - drilling completions since then. Do you foresee that first wells type curve as being kind of representative of what you're going to see in the more recent wells? I just want to get a sense of whether you're at the point you kind of think you have a working benchmark for going forward.
A – Jay Allison: When we started drilling the first well over two years ago, two-and-a-half years ago, we have felt comfortable, Noel, that resource was there, because there was a major field, all these acreage that we now have had secured. It was a major field, gas field. That's why the Pinnacle plant was here and the 145-mile high-pressure line was there. The question was kind of like it was in '07, '08, can you use this technology there to really drill like shale play both for Bossier and the Haynesville and we've proved that it was in '08, '09 in the core. Now I think we've seen kind of a mirror image of that. We have started to see that materialize in the Western Haynesville, but you don't know, right? I mean, the jury is still out. As you have the Circle M well producing eight months and our outside reservoir group gives us some reserves. The next year, they continue to be a little better and the next year a little better. It does give you a lot of confidence that the resource is there, one. And then when you listen to Dan, it gives you confidence that the questions are, how have you changed your drilling, have you changed your completion? We're getting better and better and better. Again, remember, no group has really completed more Haynesville Bossier wells, period, than we have. So, our confidence is really strong right now because we have seen this happen back in the core in '08, '09, '10, '11. If you were to look at those first wells that you'd have an upset stomach there, they weren't very good wells in '08, '09. very good wells in '08, '09. If you compare the results there versus our first wells here, I mean, these look exemplary compared to what those wells look like in '08. So, that's why we went out to secure our footprint. We went out and we didn't try to push on reserves. We just said this is what we think EURs are. And so far, they've held up really solid, and in fact, we've seen improvements on them. That's what we're saying. Costs down, EUR steady, maybe going up. That gives us this hope as we say this is our business plan to continue well-by-well to add inventory and to derisk our big footprint, which now we do control.
Dan Harrison: Noel, I would add, our first wells were Bossier Shale wells because we were targeting a little shallower, little less complex to drill. But we've got the confidence to drill the Haynesville and we think that our latest wells being Haynesville wells. We think they're coming out of the gate stronger. Yes, they don't have the two years of proof that the first Bossier well has, but that's what really excites us that the fact that, the Haynesville, just like Haynesville is better in Louisiana too. It always seems to be a little bit better. It's a better rock. It definitely completes better than the Bossier. So, we're excited about the potential of the next batch of Haynesville well has and we're really focused. You can see most of the wells we focus now on the Haynesville formation and the play versus the Bossier. I think we have what six Bossier wells and I think we're almost half and half of the 12.
Unidentified Company Representative: Yeah. That'd be right. We're to date turn to sales we're basically about half and half on Bossier and Haynesville. We will have, I'll say, we've leaned in heavier on the Haynesville wells this year. I think we're going to have total nine wells turn to sales this year. Seven of those will be Haynesville, just two will be Bossier's. But part of that early on was, we obviously concerned with the high temperatures and increase in our chance of success and have a better drilling performance. We targeted the Bossier early on, but we've made such great progress with dealing with the temperatures that we now basically don't see the Haynesville, as so much of a challenge compared to the Bossier.
Noel Parks: Great. Thanks for the detail. I was just wondering, is it the formation being [indiscernible] does that affect the spacing at all? Is there a lot of question about what ultimately sort of density you would be pursuing in the Western Haynesville?
A – Jay Allison: Sure. I mean, obviously, these wells are expensive and you're going to have to be really careful not to get them too close together and have a lot of interference between wells. I mean, you are not going to have as big of a margin for that, in a play where you are deeper and you have got more extensive wells. But we've got, I mean, some of the stuff is really thick. Somebody asked earlier, it's a really good question about how we're going to thinking about the future development of this play because we're blessed with that task to solve how many can we stack on top of each other and what's the spacing going to be. Part of that is we wanted to get this last well pump a bigger frac and see what kind of recovery we get because that obviously will also affect the exact spacing is going to be for the future. We'll just have to see what these type curves show us what they look like and where we end up with that.
A – Dan Harrison: Noah, with our big acreage position, I mean, it could be a decade or more before we do any aggressive infill drilling.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Paul Diamond with Citi. Please go ahead.
Paul Diamond: Thank you and good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I just want to touch quickly, staying in the Western Haynesville. Once you move beyond held by production needs, where do you see their pad size going? I guess how much does that impact economics over the longer term?
A – Jay Allison: I didn't catch the full question there.
Paul Diamond: Sorry. When you get beyond the held-by production needs, how big do you see the pad size getting at Western Haynesville?
A – Jay Allison: Pad size? I mean, everything that we have drilled to date in the core and in the Western Haynesville for multi-well pads. I mean, I think the biggest pad we built is like 500 by 700 foot for multi-well pads. Occasionally, we'll come back and add on to those if we come back and drill additional wells off the pad.
A – Dan Harrison: He's probably interested in how many wells per pad could we look at. Obviously, we have both the Bossier and the Haynesville play. Given our vast acreage, we're able to go both directions from the pad versus just one. We're, at least seems like, we're really targeting 10,000-foot laterals here as kind of an optimal area. I think 10,000-foot laterals, multiple benches, and maybe each of the Haynesville and Bossier potentially, and then going from both directions from a pad. So, quite a few wells could be on a pad in the future, which obviously creates a lot of efficiencies for everything including the midstream hookup.
A – Jay Allison: Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't get that. Yeah, everything that we've got targeted today is for two well pads where we can do it. We do drill in opposite directions to hold the maximum amount of acreage, but we do have them built. We'll come back and drill on these pads in the future with additional wells.
A – Ron Mills: Kind of all along the same line is, takeaway. We're going to have enough takeaway in the Western Haynesville and that's where we came in last year with Pinnacle, which is backed by Quantum. As we drill these wells, we're planning on takeaway literally years ahead. Not that we have to drill those wells at all because most of that's HPP, but we can plan our own path for takeaway. That's very rare. The big acreage positions like this that don't have an aggressive drill schedule is very rare too. If you capture this amount of acreage, let's say, $500 or $600 or less. That's typically when you make your money. We have captured that. The question is, do you aggressively have to drill it? The answer is, no. Then you say, well, is the pipe thickness there? The answer is, we think, yes. And has the well performance been positive? And the answer is, yes.
Paul Diamond: Understood. Thanks for the clarity. Just one quick follow-up, shifting back to the core. For the rest of the 2024 operational plan, I guess, what percentage is likely to include additional wells somewhere before spacing. But really to answer your question, we do not know what that exact spacing is going for additional wells similar to four Bossier ones you drilled in Q1 that are kind of required to hold the acreage.
A – Jay Allison: Can you ask that again?
Paul Diamond: Sure. Of the 2024 operational plan, in the first quarter, there were four of those Bossier wells, shorter laterals required to hold the acreage. How much of that should we expect to...
A – Dan Harrison: There's no more.
A – Jay Allison: I'll tell you, interestingly enough, we do have some additional sections that will come up. We've actually going to drill one of these horseshoe wells later this year. I'll go ahead and tell that, that's kind of something that we're looking forward to trying. But we don't have many of these isolated sections left, where we'll have any of those issues.
Unidentified Company Representative: Yes. I think the key to that is, if you don't think they're valuable, you don't drill them. We think they're valuable enough to drill them. Even if they're shorter, they're very economic.
A – Ron Mills: We're excited about the horseshoe design and it could eliminate the stranded shorties as we like to call them. The 5,000-foot lateral wells has the potential to allow you to eliminate those and turn it into a horseshoe well and have a long lateral well on one section. That will be kind of an exciting thing to do here later in the year.
Paul Diamond: Understood. Thanks for the clarity.
A – Ron Mills: Because we do believe that shorter laterals in the Western Haynesville are definitely our lowest return projects just because of so much cost into the well and the reserves you recover with only that shorter lateral. So the ability to eliminate a lot of those out of our inventory and turn them into long, it will be very enhancing.
Operator: Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I now like to turn it back to Jay Allison for closing remarks.
Jay Allison: Perfect. Again, I know everybody's time is valuable and we thank you for sharing your time with us. At Comstock, we do recognize the growing need for natural gas around the world. I mean, our long-term goal, as we said over and over and over is to be a significant supplier to the growing LNG market that's developing really several 100 miles from our Haynesville Shale operations, including our Western Haynesville area. So, we're going to be good stewards with your money. We want to thank the bondholders. We want to thank our banks that support us. We want to thank the Jones that support us and the other stakeholders and the service companies. Everybody over the last 100 days has kind of teamed up and has helped Comstock. So, we're thankful for that. Thank you for your time.
Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.
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