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Comstock Resources, Inc. (CRK)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Sun, May 13, 2018

$17.33

+2.97%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2018 Comstock Resources, Inc. earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. It is now my pleasure to hand the conference over to Mr. Jay Allison. Sir, you may begin.

Jay Allison

Analyst

All right. Brian, thank you, and I want to thank everyone for participating this morning in our first quarter conference call. And again, we try to put out major news before the call, so you probably all are aware of that and we will go over that as we go through the call. Welcome to the Comstock Resources first quarter 2018 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 presentations. There you will find a presentation titled First Quarter 2018 Results. I am Jay Allison, Chief Executive Officer of Comstock, and with me is Roland Burns, our President and Chief Financial Officer, and Dan Harrison, our VP of Operations. During this call, we will discuss our first quarter operating and financial results. If you’ll go to Slide 2, please refer to Slide 2 in our presentation and note that our discussions 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. Now we get to the 2018 first quarter summary. That is Slide 3. Our first quarter financial results showed substantial growth as compared to the first quarter of 2017. Natural gas production grew by 55% and was the driver of higher revenues, EBITDAX and cash flow. Oil prices were 41% higher, but natural gas prices were down by 5% as compared to the first quarter of 2017. Our sales grew by 36% to $74 million and our EBITDAX increased by 54% to $54 million and cash flow increased 125% to $36 million. We are very excited about the strong results from our Northern…

Roland Burns

Analyst

Thanks, Jay. On Slide 8, we recap our natural gas production by quarter. And in the first quarter of this year, our natural gas production averaged 241 million a day, which was up 55% from 2017’s first quarter, but it was roughly flat to the fourth quarter of 2017. With the drilling program that we’re running now, we still expect our overall growth in gas production to be about 30% year-over-year in 2018 versus 2017. Slide 9 recaps what production we had shut in for the quarter. So, in the first quarter, we had shut-in gas production, which averaged 5 million a day over the entire quarter. And this was mostly necessary due to shut-ins for offset frac activity for either our operations or for activity by offset operators. On Slide 10, we outline our hedge position. We had 42 million a day of our natural gas hedged in the first quarter at $3.26 per Mcf, but for the remainder of 2018 and going into the first quarter of 2019, we have 60 million a day hedged at $3. We still want to add more hedges but are waiting for a little more strength in the forward curve in natural gas. On Slide 11, we summarize the first-quarter financial results. The higher natural gas production and lower operating costs really drove the increases to our sales and cash flow in the quarter. Our natural gas production was up 55%, while oil production from the Eagle Ford continued to decline. Oil prices improved by 41% in the quarter, but natural gas prices were down by 5%. So overall, our oil and gas sales this quarter, including our hedging gains, increased by 36% to $74 million as compared to the first quarter of 2017. Our EBITDAX was up 57% to $53.7 million…

Dan Harrison

Analyst

Thank you, Roland. On Slide 15, you’ll see a – this is a slide you’ve seen before. It shows our 69,000 net acres in the Haynesville and the mid-Bossier Shale play across North Louisiana and East Texas. We operate most of our net acreage position and have an average working interest of 79% across the 88,000 gross acres, which we have an interest in. The average net revenue interest across our acreage is 81%. As Roland stated, we are currently planning to drill 36 gross wells this year or 15.6 net wells to Comstock. Over on Slide 16 is a summary of our completions to date. This shows 37 of the 43 total wells we have completed to date since reentering the play back in early 2015. The other six wells we have completed are located further north in the USG joint venture and can be seen on the next slide. That red callouts represent the 13 Gen 1 wells we drilled in 2015 and 2016 that were completed with 3,000 pounds per foot. The gold callouts represent 24 of the 30 Gen 2 wells we have completed since late 2016, and these were completed with 3,800 pounds per foot. Since our last conference call, we have completed eight additional wells, six Haynesville wells plus two Bossier wells. The average initial production rate of all eight wells was 25 million cubic feet per day. Four of the eight new wells are highlighted on this slide. The Roberts 26-35 #1 and #2 wells were drilled to the Haynesville at an average vertical depth of 11,147 feet with the #1 well having an 8,599-foot lateral and the #2 having a 9,018-foot lateral. The initial production rates were 27 million cubic feet per day and 28 million cubic feet per day, respectively. The…

Jay Allison

Analyst

All right. Roland, thank you and Dan, thank you. If you go to Slide 21, we’ll go over the 2018 outlook, which is really, really good. We are focused, of course, on completing the Jerry Jones contribution, which will have to be approved by our shareholders. The completion of the transaction will allow us to transform our balance sheet and simplify our capital structure, as Roland mentioned. The added operating cash flow improved reserves from the North Dakota properties will allow us to refinance all of our existing debt, addressing near-term maturities, enhancing our liquidity and substantially reducing our interest costs. The additional cash flow will be reinvested in our high return Haynesville shale program, which will create 30% production growth in 2018, as Roland mentioned, and over 50% production growth in 2019. Comstock’s already low-cost structure is expected to continue to improve as the low-cost Haynesville shale production continues to grow. Our operating costs per Mcfe in the first quarter of 2018 decreased by 28% and our DD&A per Mcfe was down 38% and will continue to improve as we grow our Haynesville production. After our refinancing is complete, we could see our interest expense cut in half. For the rest of the call, we will take questions from the analysts who follow the company. So, Brian, turn it back over to you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from the line of Ron Mills with Johnson Rice. Your line is now open.

Ron Mills

Analyst

Good morning, Jay. Quick question. As the relationship with Jerry Jones expands with the Williston acquisition, you had talked about him really being interested in the Haynesville and the growth opportunity there. Can you talk about potential consolidation plans? How the relationship with Jerry could make you all a potential consolidator in that area and how that relationship would work to execute on that?

Jay Allison

Analyst

Again, I think going back to the Joneses, I mean to give you an overview, they do think big. And they are attracted to the economics of the Haynesville/Bossier play, particularly since we have minimum firm transportation burdens. They look at a tremendous number of potential Haynesville/Bossier drill sites locations. They look at the location of the Haynesville itself and they see where the demand center is. LNG exports, Mexico exports, industrial demand. So, you look at that and you say, well, what do we do with the cash flow that they are injecting? And we go from 3 rigs to 4, 4 to 5, by year-end 2018. And what does that do? Well, that should – and this is what the Jones want, it significantly increases our pace of production. But at the same time, it pushes our leverage lower. So, what does that allow us to do within cash flow? Well, that does allow us have additional acquisitions. In fact, we were, as Ron and you were here at the same time – I mean, in 2007 when we started deepening some of these Cotton Valley wells, there was a Bossier there. We’re one of the first entrants to help discover this whole play. So, the Joneses come back and say you drilled 120 of these Haynesville wells horizontally between 2008 and 2012. And they look at what’s happened since 2015, and we are the first really to redefine the Haynesville. They said, okay, can we grow in the area? And we said, well, we think we really can. And so, I do think that they would like to see some consolidation in the area. And I think we have to continue to say what is our goal. I mean, our goal is to exercise discipline. It is to refinance our existing debt, is to lower our leverage, is to drill quality Haynesville/Bossier wells, it’s reduce costs. But it is also to incrementally grow our locations. We’ve had a couple of private companies call us once we have put out the letter of intent and they have reached out and they said are you interested in maybe us looking at you buying some of our properties and stuff? And we said, well, I think that is the plan. Now, we’ve got to be disciplined, though. And we’re not going to increase leverage, we’re going to decrease it, but I do see some consolidation in the basin. And I think we could be the leader in that if we’re smart. There’s a lot of investment there. There’s a lot of drilling that needs to take place. I think there’s some economies of scale that can happen if we can add more rigs. So, yes, I think you think big, that’s one of our goals. So, good question.

Ron Mills

Analyst

And as it relates to the Haynesville and Bossier, looking at the map, looks like the Bossier wells now really, really cover that whole block down on the Sabine Parish line from north to south and east to west. So how does that – the de-risking of the Bossier down there – fit in with the planed Haynesville development in terms of activity? Or is the Haynesville still ahead of the Bossier in terms of potential timing?

Jay Allison

Analyst

I think Ronnie – and of course, if you go back in between 2008 through 2012, we drilled probably 20 Bossier wells. Now, they weren’t – we didn’t have enhanced completions and we didn’t have extended laterals and stuff. But you drill – fortunately you drill through the Bossier and then you hit the Haynesville. So, and then when Mack Good was the COO, Mack stepped out in December of 2015 and we drilled a Jordan well and he was confident enough back then and we couldn’t make any mistakes back then. We can’t make any now, but we certainly couldn’t make any back then. And the Jordan well came in. And if you looked at the type curves, the Jordan well is probably one of the best if not the best well we have. So, then you see some peer companies drilling some Bossier wells to the east and they look like really good wells. And we thought, well, we know the big mineral owner in part of that area, so we were confident that our Bossier extended to the north and to the west. But you’ve got to be slow in it. And then all of a sudden, we hit a 21 million a day well, 17 million a day well, another 20 million a day well. And I think this fourth well that we are testing right now, I think it’s going to look like a really good well, too. So yes, we’ve come a long way from December 2015 through today to de-risk the Bossier. And I don’t think we get a lot of value for the Bossier. Of course, your Tier 1 play, that’s the least risky play, is the Haynesville. You can see all on those charts on 16. We have lots of locations. But I do think we’ve got some really, really valuable Bossier locations. And as we de-risk that, which we’ll materially de-risk it as of today, we will start getting some value for that too. And we will be drilling some of those wells.

Ron Mills

Analyst

And then one last one for Dan, maybe. The Caddo Parish, the results up there have been really comparable with the wells down in DeSoto Parish. Has that been a pleasant surprise? In other words, has it been better than what you may have expected, Dan? Or internally did you think it was like that, and especially as it relates to what’s going on in – since your active in East Texas, is the perception about that area a different reality?

Jay Allison

Analyst

We had looked at some wells that some other companies had drilled in Caddo, and they look pretty good, but unless they are your own, you don’t know. I mean, you want your own. So, USG has been an incredible – they’re like a blue-ribbon partner. We couldn’t have a better partner. So, they came in and with their dollars they leased that acreage in Caddo. And of course, we own 20% of the wells and after the 13th well or starting the 13th well, we will own 40%. But these wells, they have been – they are great wells. We thought they would be good and they’re great. And Dan can go over a little more detail with them, so Dan, you want to comment on that?

Dan Harrison

Analyst

Yes, I’d say that we’re – I mean, we are – we’re very happy with the results. I think if you look at the data that we had in the area on the old vintage completions and you just – you go by the numbers, we were expecting to make some good wells here. Now until you reach out there and actually deliver the results, there’s maybe some skepticism on some people’s parts, but it’s basically in line with the multiples that we’ve seen down in DeSoto Parish as far as the old vintage completions to the new wells. So really not a huge surprise in that regard. But very consistent results. Of course, we’re pumping the same type of completions and just, yes, we ought to have – basically everything we drill up here ought to be fantastic from here forward.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Well, and you had mentioned – Ron, you had mentioned do we want to acquire initial acreage or consolidation. I think that’s a good example that Dan’s talking about and you brought up. Beginning of February of 2015, January of 2015, we didn’t know any of the Caddo acreage. So, you fast-forward to today, there’s 34 locations. We drilled a bunch of wells. You can see how good they are. Same thing with Harrison County and Panola County. We’re drilling those wells. They should be really good wells and we’ve added acreage there. Same way with some of the Bossier wells that we just talked about. Some of that is new acreage. And we did that with a stretched balance sheet, so the Joneses see that and they say, wow, if you had some money and we get our leverage. Our goal is to get our leverage less than two times. That is our goal. You’ve got to have a goal out there and that is our goal and we can play over levered for a long, long, long time. So, our goal is to get it down. And what does that allow us to do? It allows us to be a consolidator and add Tier 1 locations.

Ron Mills

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will come from the line of Mike Kelly with Seaport Global. Your line is now open.

Mike Kelly

Analyst

Hi guys good morning.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Hi, Mike.

Mike Kelly

Analyst

Jay, Roland, congrats on the really nice Jerry Jones pivot [indiscernible]. Had to read it about five times to make sure I was actually reading it correctly, but it’s great to see you guys with a healthy balance sheet again. Following on to Ron’s line of questions, just on Jerry Jones, having him in the mix and 84% of the company, how should we think about that at a high level? What’s that really going to do in terms of just changing the dynamics of the company? Anything else you’d really add on that front?

Roland Burns

Analyst

Yes, sure. I think the earlier press release kind of said it exactly right. I mean, Comstock has to play on offense instead of being on defense like we’ve been – we’ve tried to – protecting the stakeholders for the last three years with everything we could, trying to add value, but having to do it through – with a lot of help from partners in managing the balance sheet in the downturn. So, I think post the refinancing, then that can be all behind us and really go to capturing more Haynesville opportunities. In addition, just the drilling up our inventory, which is pretty substantial. But we really think there’s the opportunity, especially in this current environment, where there’s not another well-capitalized public company out there that’s significantly focused on the Haynesville. It’s a great opportunity to consolidate private interest out there, smaller operators that really – they see the value, but you have to – you need a lot of size and scale to run the drilling programs out here. And you need to have multiple rigs, multiple frac crews to bring economies of scale to this program. And I think we can help provide that vehicle for those other companies to consolidate some of that interest in the Haynesville. So, we’re really looking forward to that, just really putting all our efforts away from protecting the company to growing the opportunities. Have a very strong partner obviously and I think his attraction to the company is to see it be the premier Haynesville company and can support the company in whatever endeavors. If we find good opportunities, I think he’ll support the company in any way that we need it.

Jay Allison

Analyst

And Mike, the other thing, he – they made – the Jones family made their money in oil and gas, so this is not a one-off backer. This is a family that made their money in oil and gas. He loves oil and gas. So, he said I made my money in gas, really in gas. So, it gets even a little better the deeper you dig. And like Roland said, you’ve got to be best-in-class, you’ve got to do things right. If we hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t touch us. And so, we’re just kind of now – again, he said we’re going to play offense. We’ve been pretty good at that, we just hadn’t been able to play on that side of the line for about three or four years.

Roland Burns

Analyst

It’s a really unique combination, which I hope the market appreciates, of the high cash flow, Bakken assets that he has invested in and now is harvesting. As we are seeing differentials come down and you kind of combine that with our opportunity-rich, but capital – lack of capital resources kind of Haynesville operations and you put those two together and they really – they provide – I think we think a real attractive company as we’re able to – that cash flow, one, it supports the – it supports all the refinance of the debt at much more attractive rates in terms that we have now. Then it also provides us a big growth opportunity fully within cash flow. I think we were looking at our new capital budgets recently. We are used to having to cut back and figuring out how do we cut projects back to keep CapEx within cash flow. And then the challenge is almost reversed. All of a sudden, we’re saying we need to really add a lot of projects. It does take a while to get things back into operation and get all that set up. It’s actually – we have to increase our activity a lot just to stay within cash flow and actually invest the cash flow. So, it’s going to be an exciting new chapter for Comstock once we close this transaction.

Jay Allison

Analyst

And Mike, again, I think even when we sold the PDP part of the Eagle Ford, I mean we kept upside for that 218 identified drilling locations on that 8,700 net acres. And then we should have upside on 50% on the 108 infill drilling locations and the re-frac of the 191 producing wells. That’s the type partner we have even there. So, we’ll have a rig there, so we’ve been there, I mean that’s oil. If oil prices go up, we’ll have the 10,500 barrels and we’ll just have more cash flow to reinvest in the Haynesville and to grow even more. It is absolutely a win-win-win everywhere.

Mike Kelly

Analyst

Yes. That’s good stuff, guys, exciting. Just, real quick, the Bakken, let me know if I’m thinking about this correctly. But I really just see that as a cash flow stream for you guys and don’t expect you to be doing bolt-on acquisitions or anything up in North Dakota anytime soon. Is that correct?

Dan Harrison

Analyst

That’s correct.

Jay Allison

Analyst

We look at that, though.

Roland Burns

Analyst

Yes, I think it’s that opportunity set will be something that now, especially with more expertise from our Arkoma partners, we won’t rule that out, but I think the – as they are seeing that the opportunities up there are expensive now because it’s such a high cash flow area and they see the investment opportunities are better on natural gas. They invested in the Bakken when oil prices were lower and created this asset in that time. And did really well because they invested at the right time. Now they see it’s expensive to get acreage or drilling opportunities up there. But we would look at – there are projects that will come to us that still need to be drilled. That’s in some of that CapEx. And there’s also a fair amount of drilled uncompleted wells that need to be completed. But most of that capital activity will probably get finished in the next 12 months or so, and then unless we add new opportunities, we’re just harvesting that cash flow and reinvesting it in other parts of the company.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Yes, I don’t think that Jones invest in owning 84% of Comstock to drill a lot of Bakken wells. What we’ve done is we’ve said if there are opportunities there and you think that we should look at those and do that. I mean, we would absolutely look at them and do that if they competed against the economics of the Haynesville, Bossier or Eagle Ford. So that would be another leg of the stool we would have. I don’t think, Mike, you can say we’re going to be that active there, but it’s just another leg.

Roland Burns

Analyst

Yes, we’re not an operator on any of those properties.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Yes, they are all non-op.

Roland Burns

Analyst

And traditionally Comstock has liked to operate and spend most of our drilling budget – it’s always been our philosophy to spend most of our drilling budget on operated properties.

Mike Kelly

Analyst

Got it, okay. And then for me, last one. 2019, it was good to see, Jay, slide 21 that you laid out 50% growth expectations in the Haynesville in 2019. Curious, some of the assumptions behind that; where you’ll be with the rig count, what kind of ballpark CapEx could look like. And then also if you can maybe fill in the blanks for what oil could potentially look like in 2019 given you’re going to be starting back up the Eagle Ford program. Thank you.

Roland Burns

Analyst

Sure. So yes, that really is based on running the five operated rigs in the Haynesville, which we hope to have in place by the end of 2018. So that kind of represents a five-rig program. Now, those would still probably be dedicated to finishing the development of joint venture properties, but then you’d have three on higher interest projects that are in our portfolio. We would see on the oil side, probably not seeing a lot of growth in oil overall, other than we’d have a full year of the acquisition versus a half a year. But we would see not a real large decline, depending on how strong the Eagle Ford program is going, but oil kind of probably quarter-to-quarter slightly declining and kind of our expectations without a bigger oil investment program going on. And I think the overall – if you look at the overall CapEx, it’s probably in the neighborhood of $400 million for next year. Kind of targeting what we think will be the cash flow generated by the combined enterprise based on the current strip pricing out there for oil and gas. So, we size the program looking at the cash flow we thought we’d generate and that five rigs seems to match up right now. If we get better gas prices then that could be a little different answer.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Mike, that’s a pretty expendable number because we don’t have the takeaway issues that you have in some of the basins, sand, and we don’t have the differential issues [indiscernible] some of them. Those are big, big things, the reasons the Joneses looked at the Haynesville/Bossier too.

Roland Burns

Analyst

We’re pretty much doing the projects that we’ve always been doing, so there’s not a lot of – and there’s a little bit of Bossier in 2019. We still haven’t really dedicated a big program to the Bossier, but I think that will be coming at some point when we decide to have a larger program down in the Bossier properties. We still will continue to do some projects, delineate it and study the long-term performance, which has been good. Those wells seem to – we don’t really IP them as they don’t start out as high, but they have a lower decline. I think that’s been the consistent thing we’ve been seeing from the Bossier.

Mike Kelly

Analyst

Great. Thanks, guys, and congrats again.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will come from the line of David Beard with Coker Palmer. Your line is now open.

David Beard

Analyst

Good morning, gentlemen.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Good morning.

David Beard

Analyst

Two questions, a micro and a macro. On the micro front, when you look up in the Bakken, first, do you have a lot of visibility being a non-op that you will spend around $50 million? Or could that be sort of high/low?

Jay Allison

Analyst

Well, you’ve got – we know we have 13 net wells that are not completed, so that budget is to complete those wells and there’s three net undrilled wells.

Roland Burns

Analyst

I think it’s just a matter of we’ll spend that, but the timing will not be under our control. So, the timing could be in the next six months or the next nine months, the next 12 months. But it’s probably in that kind of timeframe. That’s why we do usually like to operate because we like to control the timing of projects.

David Beard

Analyst

Yes, I was worried a little less about timing, just that you could get hit with a bunch of AFEs given the activity up in the basin. I know it’s a little hard to look at that, but could there be some variability from that?

Roland Burns

Analyst

No, there’s really not because the property – what we own are individual – what we own are individual drilling opportunities that they have, so we don’t have acreage. Other than the opportunities we have already committed to, we’d have to commit to new ones, so there is no – unless we add new opportunities, there’s not going to be any other activity other than that. So, yes, it’s unique. It’s how that asset was created. It’s kind of a unique asset. It’s kind of like the program we’re doing with Arkoma now. It’s participation in wells only.

David Beard

Analyst

Yes, no, that is unique and that gives you a little more control for a non-op than typically people think. And do you think that spending is enough to hold production roughly flat or down a little?

Roland Burns

Analyst

No, we think it’d be – it is going to increase some as you get those projects finished, but then after that, once they are all finished, then you would see a decline. So, it’s the timing of those projects to kind of say when they will all come online will determine when that happens. But we overall though, potentially can ramp up the Eagle Ford program after we get some first results in and that would be our growth oil asset in the future right now. And we think we’re going to see some pretty good results, especially in the current oil prices as we kick off that program with USG down there.

David Beard

Analyst

Right, right.

Roland Burns

Analyst

We think there’s a lot of – there was a lot left behind that we just didn’t – given what other operators are doing all around us in the Eagle Ford.

David Beard

Analyst

No, that’s helpful. And then a little bigger picture back in the Haynesville, but it relates with your joint venture partner. Now that you guys are on offense and they’ve been on offense as well, how would you manage? Would there be any conflicts in terms of acquisitions given that you are both going to be a lot more active in the basin? How should we think about that?

Roland Burns

Analyst

Well, I think that as far as – I don’t think we ever competed against each other. And I think we are – in the Haynesville, anyway, I think we’re kind of their main partner. And we look jointly to do acquisitions. We’ve bid on acquisitions, several of them jointly, just haven’t gotten them. I think we’ll be a more – we can carry more of the load I guess and be – a lot of those early acquisitions, they were having to carry a lot of the upfront load because we couldn’t really invest in acreage and stuff. We needed to put all our money in drilling. So, I think it just gets stronger because we will be stronger.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Well, even if you look at Caddo, had we had – if we had the liquidity, we would have gone 50-50 with them in the Caddo wells. And we didn’t have this. So, I think that’s a difference you’ll see, that’d be good for them and good for us.

Roland Burns

Analyst

And we like having the partners and being at that 50-50 level. That’s why we’re kind of looking at both our potential JV partners and looking at kind of keeping – trying to have 50-50 ownership. It gives us good – better diversification in our drilling program, but then both have a very meaningful interest. And that’s how we’d see doing things with either of the two partners in the future, targeting a 50-50 ownership.

David Beard

Analyst

Right. No, that makes sense to have two shoulders to the wheel versus just one. Appreciate the color and congratulations, guys.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will come from the line of Joshua Gale with Nomura Securities. Your line is now open.

Joshua Gale

Analyst

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Good morning.

Joshua Gale

Analyst

A ton of strategic stuff to ask about, so I apologize in advance for asking about the minutia, but just had a couple questions about the contribution agreement and refinancing of the debt. First, is the effective date of the transaction still April 1? And although you are paying in shares, would the purchase price adjustment be made in cash back to you at closing? And I know there’s some completion activity in process, but it’s obviously cash flowing positive, so would you expect that adjustment to be somewhat helpful in the refinancing process?

Roland Burns

Analyst

Yes, that’s a great question, and I think that’s exactly how we set it up, is that the shares are fairly fixed and the net cash flow after the April 1 effective date would come back to the company in cash. And so, we do see that as a good source of cash to go along with the cash that we had put in our pocket from the Eagle Ford sale to be part of what we used in the overall refinancing that we’ll undertake as we close that Arkoma transaction.

Joshua Gale

Analyst

Right, thank you for that. And then as far as – I know in the 2016 process, it was 50 calendar days from the filing of the proxy materials to the shareholder vote date. And I’m not an expert in this field as to what the regulatory requirements are for notice period, but would you expect it to be a similar period of time? And can you run the call notice and the refinancing process on the debt concurrently with that?

Roland Burns

Analyst

We do plan to be working on both of those two items over the next – the rest of this month and through June. And we’re targeting to, of course, to having the shareholder vote in very early July. But that’s all dependent on – given that this is not a routine proxy that we will be filing, it can be reviewed by the SEC, so we don’t control the timing. But pending not having a review, we could see getting to the vote in early July. So, in that period of time as we are going through the process to put the matter in front of our shareholders to vote on, we will be working on putting together a bank group and really just completing the already refinancing plan we were working on before. And it’d just be on a bigger scale and what we’ve been told much better terms with a stronger balance sheet. So, we will be putting together the refinancing plan and having that pretty much in place so they can be fairly simultaneous when we get the shareholder vote.

Joshua Gale

Analyst

All right. Thanks so much. Congrats on all you’ve accomplished and best of luck.

Roland Burns

Analyst

All right, thank you.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are out of time to take questions for today. So now, it is my pleasure to hand the conference back over to Mr. Jay Allison for some closing comments or remarks.

Jay Allison

Analyst

Well, as the Board and as management and as everyone that works here, we want to thank every one of you that are debtholders, equity owners, analysts, whatever, for trusting us, for going through the ups and downs we’ve had since Thanksgiving of 2014. We’d never quit on you. We had a lot of dead ends, but we were transparent with that and we’re just thankful that you have again trusted us with the problems. And we’ve tried to tell you what the problems were and I think we have an incredible solution and everybody is a big winner. But without you allowing us to do that, we wouldn’t be here. So, anyhow, thanks for participating in the call and we will finish what we started.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation on today’s conference. This does conclude our program and we may all disconnect. Everybody, have a wonderful day.