"The Asia/Pacific region is an area of significant growth in energy consumption, and we believe that there will be many investment opportunities for us in this region," said William A Bruno, vice president-international business and development.
Randall S DeBolt, general manager, and Lars U Lange, project manager, staff the office. Both have considerable experience in underground mining.
"We plan to use that experience and CONSOL Energy's technical ability in longwall mining and coalbed methane extraction for project development," DeBolt said.
In related news Consol expects net income from ongoing operations to be US61c per diluted share, versus previous estimates of US45-48c per share. Consol will report results on April 26, 2001.
In addition, the company expects to record several items which will result in an additional $66c per diluted share to net income. A principal non-recurring item is the anticipated receipt of a tax refund for payments of certain excise tax on exports. Courts have determined the tax to be unconstitutional, and Consol expects to use the refund to reduce short-term debt.
Consol reported March production of 6.9 million tons with 4.9 million tons from Northern Appalachia, 1.5 million tons from Central Appalachia and 500,000 tons coming from the Midwest/West. For the 2001 third quarter production totaled 20 million tons. March marked the third straight month that Enlow Fork Mine produced more than 1 million tons, although geologic conditions continued to impair production at Mine 84. Loveridge Mine began coal production on March 1 from its previously developed longwall face.
Consol Energy is the largest producer of high-Btu bituminous coal in the US, and the largest exporter of US coal. Consol Energy has 23 bituminous coal mining complexes in six states and two Canadian provinces. In addition, the company has net production of approximately 89m cubic feet per day of coalbed methane gas. Consol Energy had revenues of $US2.2 billion during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000.
