The move, which would occur within the next four years, would take the company from its current 186,000 square foot outfit in the southern Pittsburgh suburb of Upper Saint Clair to Cecil Township in neighbouring Washington County, part of the proposed industrial park Southpointe II, a local news report said.

Consol, which employs about 400 people at its headquarters, is looking at several sites before making a decision, according to local newspaper the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It sold its current headquarters building in June 2005 for $US13 million to real estate outfit Corvus Pittsburgh Interests I.

Company investor and public relations vice-president Thomas Hoffman said a move, particularly to the planned Southpointe II location, would be ideal because of the proximity it would have with its Eighty Four, Enlow Fork, and Bailey operations in Greene and Washington counties.

“Southpointe [II] is the place to look at if you are going to build a headquarters building,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“It is one of the more obvious choices,” he said, adding that Consol would also be nearer to major transportation hub the Pittsburgh International Airport.

Consol Energy owns 17 operations, primarily in northern and central Appalachia, nearly all of which are underground facilities. In 2004, 87% of the company’s production came from longwall operations, according to its website.

The company is also part of the high profile FutureGen initiative with several other electric and coal industry leaders to develop the world’s cleanest coal-fuelled power plant. Short-listing of potential sites throughout the US is now under way and the project is tentatively scheduled to begin operations in 2012.