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Comstock Resources (CRK) strikes $1.65 billion SOCAR deal to halve its $3.1 billion debt load

9/1/2026

The tension in Comstock Resources' announcement Tuesday is this: the company is selling working interests in its best acreage to repair a balance sheet carrying $3.1 billion in net debt as of June 30, 2026, and the entire value proposition rests on a transaction that has not yet been signed.

The case for the deal is clean. The risk is that a letter of intent is not a closing.

Under the agreement in principle, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) would pay $1.65 billion in cash for working interests across Comstock's Haynesville operations: 20% of the company's Legacy Haynesville upstream assets, 15% of its Western Haynesville upstream assets (stepping down to 7.5% after five years once SOCAR earns a 15% return on its investment), and 15% of Comstock's 73% interest in Pinnacle Gas Services LLC, the midstream subsidiary serving the Western Haynesville.

Comstock (NYSE: CRK) keeps operatorship across all three. The effective date is July 1, 2026. The proceeds go straight at the debt stack.

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