Comstock Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CRK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Roland Burns: I think it’s a good chance that it will be hard to hold it flat with just 4 rigs. We are going to be looking at high grade maybe — we can high grade some of that to the most prolific part. We also look at where we have the best markets and the best transport to utilize that. But I think the — as the Western Haynesville starts to build a nice production base, and then it has a much lower — that production, even though like Dan said, when we kind of IP those, that’s almost like what we produce them at for a long period of time. That production becomes a very stable part of the base, so — with lower declines. So I think longer term, I think that we’ll have — we can lower our corporate decline rate as the Western Haynesville takes over a more meaningful part of that production base. In short term, we’ll have to kind of see how to balance the two.

Operator: And our next question comes from Gregg Brody from Bank of America.

Gregg Brody: So you mentioned the $300 million of capital coming from Quantum. About $100 million to $200 million you said will be spent next year. Is there — to get to the 2 Bcf per day, is there a need to raise more capital? And is the $300 million enough? Or is there plans to raise a revolver down to that facility? Maybe you can kind of fill in there. It seems like you might need more than $300 million, but maybe I’m wrong about that.

Roland Burns: Well, I think the entity will become self-financing after it gets going. We think that, that’s the amount of equity capital that has to come in. We don’t really plan to put much leverage on those assets at this time. So a lot of it is — we do see that, that is adequate based on kind of how we’re seeing it build up. But there’s a lot of the future still to be written on that. So we’ve got lots of flexibility. That — that will be — that is set up in an unrestricted subsidiary, so that will kind of have its own potential financing base. So in the future, if it makes sense, it could have its own — it could have its own credit facility, but that’s not anticipated to do right out of the box here.

Gregg Brody: Did you have — you said it’s unrestricted, does — Comstock doesn’t have — has not guaranteed any of that. It’s…

Roland Burns: That’s correct. Yes. Comstock is not guaranteeing anything that’s in that subsidiary, right? And the commitment company from Quantum will be kind of equity dollars coming in. And so we tend to run it at a very kind of an unlevered basis. It’s kind of the immediate plans here. And then its own cash flow will help also be reinvested into the build-out.

Gregg Brody: Yes, that makes sense. And then last question for you. Just $300 million of capital. Is there — is it all available to you at your discretion? Or is there some approval process to get access to certain tranches of it?

Roland Burns: That part is available. And then it actually, we can expand with additional approval up to $500 million. But the $300 million is an additional committed part of the investment. And it’s based on, obviously, the budgets that’s approved out there and et cetera.

Operator: And I’m showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Jay Allison for closing remarks.

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