Frisco-based Comstock Resources announced Sept. 1 that the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic has acquired one-fifth of its Legacy Haynesville upstream assets, about 15 percent of its Western Haynesville upstream assets and 15 percent of its stake in Pinnacle Gas Services for $1.65 billion cash.
Baker Botts advised SOCAR with a team led by Nabil Khodadad in London with Cody Carper and Alia Heintz in Houston that included another dozen Texas lawyers.
O’Melveny & Myers provided outside counsel to Comstock Resources led by partners Jack Jacobsen and Jason Schumacher and counsel Sahil Nooruddin and Luke Ohnmeis in Dallas.
Comstock Resources also announced a venture with its largest shareholder – Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys – for the drilling and completion costs of 85 percent of 18 Western Haynesville wells and 80 percent of nine Legacy Haynesville wells over the next 12 months at an expected cost of about $450 million.
Comstock said half of the stake in the wells reverts back after a 15 percent ROI is achieved. The drilling venture will support the continued development of Comstock’s 545,000 acres in the Western Haynesville. The company will continue to operate the upstream assets while retaining control of Pinnacle. The company said SOCAR’s stake in the Western Haynesville assets are halved after five years once Azerbaijan state oil company achieves a 15 percent return on investment in those assets.
Nadine Amr also advised SOCAR from London, and the rest of the Baker Botts team was stateside with Houston lawyers Anna Irion, Jonice Cline, Megan Young, Lucy Shoemaker, Haekyong Min, Paige Meredith, Paul Magee, Abby Kite, Louie Layrisson, Jon Lobb and Elizabeth Singleton.
Jordan Hahn provided counsel from Dallas, while Ryan Norfolk, Michael Bodosky, Paul Luther and Alexander Reinert advised from Washington, D.C.
Wells Fargo acted as financial advisor to Comstock, and JPMorgan was the financial advisor to SOCAR.