Comstock Resources 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Thank you for the introduction.

I want to welcome everyone to the Comstock Resources second quarter 2026 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'll find a presentation entitled Second Quarter 2026 Results. I am Jay Allison, Chief Executive Officer of Comstock. 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 two in our presentations and note that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities laws. While we believe the expectations of such statements to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

On slide three, if you turn there, we summarize the highlights of the second quarter. We did see the return of production growth in the quarter. Production increased 16% over the first quarter of 2026 and 1% over the second quarter of 2025. However, lower natural gas prices drove lower financial results in the quarter. Natural gas and oil sales, including realized hedging gains, were $332 million. Operating cash flow, excluding working capital changes, was $189 million or $0.65 per share. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $245 million. Our Legacy Haynesville Horseshoe and Western Haynesville drilling results are driving future production and reserve growth. Eleven Western Haynesville wells turned to sales so far in 2026, with an average lateral length of 10,331 feet and a per well initial production rate of 31 million cubic feet per day.

Twenty-two Legacy Haynesville wells turned to sales with an average lateral length of 12,052 feet and a per well initial production rate of 31 million cubic feet per day. Eight of the Legacy Haynesville wells were Horseshoe wells. On June 15th, we completed our midstream equity placement by selling a 27% stake in Pinnacle Gas Service for $600 million, which we used to retire Pinnacle's preferred equity and all of Pinnacle's outstanding debt, which I will discuss more detail on the next couple of slides. If you turn over to slide four. On June 15th, 2026, we sold a minority equity interest in our midstream subsidiary, Pinnacle Gas Service, to certain funds managed by Sixth Street. Sixth Street invested $600 million in Pinnacle to acquire a 27% non-controlling common equity interest.

This transaction is another validation of the future potential of our Western Haynesville acreage, which is well-positioned to service the growing demand for natural gas in our region. The Western Haynesville represents one of the largest undeveloped natural gas resources with access to the growing demand along the Gulf Coast. It will also serve the recently announced Texas Power Generation Hub in Anderson County, Texas. The transaction with Sixth Street represents an important milestone for Comstock and a strong validation of the value we have created in the Western Haynesville. With Sixth Street's investment, we strengthen our balance sheet by reducing debt and simplified Pinnacle Gas Services's capital structure. If you'll turn to slide five. Sixth Street's investment of $600 million in Pinnacle Gas Services for a 27% stake implies a $2.2 billion enterprise value for Pinnacle.

We retained a 73% controlling common equity interest in Pinnacle, which would have a $1.6 billion implied value. The strong valuation reflects the expected future production growth from our Western Haynesville drilling program. After the transaction, Pinnacle is now debt-free and is saving $40 million in fixed charges annually. Comstock retained a 73% controlling equity interest in Pinnacle, and after certain return hurdles are met, our ownership increases to 80.5%. We also maintained operational control and key decision-making of the Pinnacle system, critical to supporting our growing Western Haynesville asset. I'll now have Roland Burns review the financial results for the quarter.

Roland? All right. Thanks, Jay.

On slide six, we cover the second quarter financial results. Our production in the second quarter averaged 1.2 BCFE per day, which was up 16% from the first quarter of this year and slightly higher than the second quarter of last year. Our oil and gas sales after hedging were $332 million, reflecting the lower natural gas prices we experienced in the quarter. EBITDAX came in at $245 million, and we generated $189 million of cash flow in the quarter. We did report a non-GAAP profit for the quarter or $0.03 per share. Included in that number was a $1 million mark-to-market unrealized gain related to our hedge book.

If you exclude the mark-to-market gain and exploration expense, which is solely related to the seismic that we're shooting into Western Haynesville and other non-recurring items, such as a gain on sales and the related income taxes to those items, we reported a similar net income of $8 million for the quarter or also $0.03 per share. On slide seven is the year-to-date financial results. Production in the first half of the year averaged about 1.2 Bcf per day. Also, our oil and gas sales for the six months were $670 million. EBITDAX was $496 million, and we had $380 million of cash flow. We reported a profit of $116 million for the first six months or $0.40 per share. That includes a pretty large pre-tax, $84 million mark-to-market unrealized gain on our hedge book.

If you exclude that gain, exploration expense, and other non-recurring items and the related income tax effect of those, our adjusted net income would've been $48 million for the first six months of this year or $0.16 per share. Slide eight breaks down the natural gas price realizations we had in the quarter. In the quarter, the weighted average NYMEX settlement price averaged $2.89, and the weighted average Henry Hub spot price for the quarter was $2.93. 32% of our gas was sold in the spot market, the approximate NYMEX reference price would've been about $2.91 for our production. Our realized gas price during the second quarter averaged $2.54, reflecting a $0.35 basis differential compared to the NYMEX settlement price and a $0.37 differential compared to the reference price.

In the second quarter, we were 63% hedged, which increased our realized gas price for the quarter to $2.93. On slide nine, we detail our operating cost per Mcfe and our EBITDAX margin. Our unit operating costs returned to normal levels in the quarter compared to where they were in the first quarter of this year. Our operating cost per Mcfe averaged $0.77 in the second quarter, which improved $0.16 from the first quarter rate, and was in line with where we were really in the second half of last year. Lifting costs was down $0.04 per Mcfe. G&A was down $0.03 per Mcfe. Both of those improvements were due to the higher production level in the quarter. Production and ad valorem taxes were also down by $0.04 in the quarter.

Some of that was due to the lower gas prices we had, but also the divestitures that we completed last year helped reduce our ad valorem taxes in the quarter. Gathering costs were down $0.05 in the quarter. That's also due to the higher production level and utilizing more of our firm transportation. Our EBITDAX margin in the quarter improved at 74%. On slide 10, we recap our spending on our drilling and other development activity in the quarter and for the first half of this year. We spent a total of $390 million on development activities in the second quarter and $734 million during the first half of this year. In the first six months of this year, we've drilled 22 or 19.4 net horizontal Haynesville wells and 12 or 11.5 net Bossier wells for a total of 34 or 30.9 net wells.

We turned 29 or 24.4 net operating wells to sales, which had an average initial production rate of 30 million cubic feet per day overall. Slide 11 summarizes our capitalization at the end of the second quarter. We ended the quarter with $545 million of borrowings outstanding under our upstream credit facility. Our upstream borrowing base was $2 billion, and our elected commitment under that facility is $1.5 billion. At the end of June, the midstream credit facility had no borrowings outstanding following the Pinnacle transaction with Sixth Street. Our last 12 months leverage ratio has averaged exactly three times. At the end of the second quarter, we have almost $1.2 billion of liquidity. I'll now turn it over to Dan to talk about the operating results in the quarter.