CNX Resources Corp (CNX) 2010 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to CONSOL Energy's second quarter 2010 results conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to the Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Dan Zajdel. Please go ahead.

Thank you, John, and welcome to CONSOL Energy's second quarter earnings call. With me this morning Brett Harvey, Chairman, CEO and President, Bill Lyons, Chief Financial Officer, Nick DeIuliis, Chief Operating Officer and Bob Pusateri, Executive VP, Marketing. We will be discussing our results and our outlook for the remainder of 2010 and beyond. Any forward-looking statements we may express or our expectations for results, as you know, are subject to business risks which we have enumerated today in our release, and previously in our SEC filing. Let's start the call today with Bill Lyons. Bill?

Thank you, Dan, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning for CONSOL Energy's second quarter 2010 earnings conference call. The second quarter of 2010 continued our string of financially strong and operationally significant quarters, combined with meaningful asset expansion and development.

On the financial side, we had record quarterly revenue of $1.3 billion, which is up 20% from the second quarter of 2009. This growth was driven by over $1 billion of revenue from the coal division. For the six months ended June 30, 2010, our revenue was $2.5 billion, up 10% from the six months ended June 30 of 2009. Revenue growth is critical as it provides us the capability to more rapidly expand and develop our large asset position. For the quarter ended June 30, 2010, adjusted EBITDA was $350 million, or 18% higher than the adjusted EBITDA of the second quarter of 2009. Net cash flow from operations for the second quarter 2010 was $332 million, up 5% from the second quarter of 2009. Net cash flow for the six months ended June 30, 2010 was $506 million.

If you reference the net operating cash flows for the full year of 2009 at $945 million and for the full year of 2008 of $1.03 billion, you can see that we are well on our way to matching the strong cash flows of the past two years. Substantial and consistent cash flows from operations are critical to our success by providing the financial flexibility to invest in our key projects or to adjust to unforeseen economic circumstances. Our operating units in both the coal and gas divisions are working in accordance with plans and are without major incidents. The safety of our employees and contractors, the stewardship to the environment in which we operate and responsible citizenship in the communities in which we work and live continue to be the benchmarks by which we judge ourselves.

One item of significant operational note is the quarterly production record of 31.9 Bcf attained by our gas division. This was 42% higher than the 22.5 Bcf achieved in the second quarter of 2009. This record was achieved from the addition of the Dominion E&P business on April 30, 2010, and our ongoing program in the coal bed methane and Marcellus shale operations. Now, even without the Dominion acquisition, we would have still achieved a production record for the quarter. We have seen outstanding results in the last five Marcellus shale wells, including three wells brought online in the second quarter. The estimated ultimate recoveries of these wells range from 5.5 Bcf to 9.9 Bcf. These estimated ultimate recoveries, though still preliminary, are far higher than the standard type curve that we have previously seen.

The second quarter of 2010 also saw the completion of a substantial expansion of our gas division. On April 30 of 2010, CONSOL Energy closed on the $3.5 billion Dominion acquisition. The acquired assets include 1 trillion cubic feet of prereserves and 500,000 acres of Marcellus shale. Nearly all the Marcellus shale acreage acquired is held by production. Such acreage has no drilling commitments, thus allowing capital to be allocated on the basis of economics, not simply to hold expiring leases. The majority of acquired acreage has a 12.5% royalty, except for about 20,000 acres held in feed, thus having no royalty. Most of the Marcellus shale acres are in central and southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. On May 28 of 2010, CONSOL Energy completed a tender offer for all the shares of the CNX Gas common stock that we did not previously own at a cash price of $38.25 per share. CONSOL Energy paid $991 million to acquire 25.3 million shares of CNX Gas common stock and outstanding vested options. CONSOL Energy completed an equity offering on March 31 of 2010 of 44.3 million shares of common stock, which generated net proceeds of approximately $1.8 billion. And on April 1 of 2010, CONSOL Energy issued $1.5 billion of 8% senior secured notes that are due in 2017 and $1.25 billion of 8.25% senior unsecured notes due in 2020.

Let's now turn to the markets where we see many positives. Given the continued projected growth in the Chinese economy, the shortage of high quality metallurgical coal and the relatively low steel inventories, we anticipate that metallurgical coal markets will continue to provide strong long-term pricing similar to what we seen in the first half of 2010. The thermal coal outlook continues to improve due to the unseasonably hot weather in the eastern United States, the declining inventories and increasing industrial activity. Also, inventories at utilities in our major market areas, which is the mid Atlantic and the south Atlantic markets, are lower than in other regions of the United States with inventories at some plants below 30 days of burn as of the end of June. The thermal coal market in northern Appalachia is also being strengthened by CONSOL Energy's exporting of coal from its northern Appalachian mines to Asia and South Africa -- South America as high vol coking coal and to Europe as thermal coal.

Longer term, exports of thermal coal look increasingly more favorable. This is driven by economic growth in developing countries like China and India and shifting of traditional supply to meet these growth demands. Regulatory pressures in central Appalachia continue to reduce coal supplies, permits become increasingly more difficult to obtain and costs increase.

CONSOL Energy estimates that annual production from central Appalachia will decline another 40 million tons by 2015. The issues in central Appalachia, combined with general economic recovery, are expected to increase coal sales opportunities and expand market share of CONSOL Energy in both the short and long term. CONSOL Energy's low cost northern Appalachia mining operations are well positioned to replace production declines in central Appalachia.. We believe that coal will continue to provide the base load of the nation's energy needs through our efforts during the last ten years to improve operating efficiencies at our major coal production sites, we believe we are well positioned to continue to provide our customers with a stable long-term supply of high quality coal that will generate substantial returns to our shareholders. On GAAP side, CONSOL energy's position in the Marcellus shale will allow us to be profitable in the current pricing environment due to the basis premium for being close to important northeast markets and our position as a low cost producer within the Marcellus play.

In summary, both our low vol business and our high vol business are doing very well. Our thermal coal business has improved considerable, and the gas business is expanding and outperforming its peers. This quarter's results show once again the value of owning shares in a diversified energy company that has best in class assets in four separate categories. We're talking about world class low vol assets, high ball assets at the Cannon, high vol assets in the Pittsburgh 8 seam that has shipped out of our 100% owned Baltimore terminal, the highest BTU thermal assets in the country and our gas division's leading position in possibly the world's largest gas formation, the Marcellus shale.

CONSOL Energy controls the greatest concentration of energy in the eastern United States. CONSOL Energy hs established itself as a company that generates strong earnings and cash flows by utilizing a sustainable model that provides financial flexibility. This flexibility enables us to react and adapt to changing economic environments and markets while continuing to prudently invest in our businesses. This quarter again demonstrated the financial power of being a low cost diversified energy company. We remain steadfast in our confidence in our business model. Our balance sheet and our status as a safe, low cost producer enable us to effectively compete and produce exceptional earnings and cash flows. Brett, your comments on the quarter.

Okay, thank you, Bill, and welcome to everybody. Bill's given a lot of details here, but I'd like to look at some of the major issue and look forward with shareholders today. First of all, I would like to talk about safety. Because of all of the issues around safety, new laws being written in congress are being contemplated. CONSOL has been very involved with labor as well as congress to talk about the future of safety, especially in underground mines, and this is a critical issue to us. We take it very serious. We have influence on the new laws. We'll adapt to the new laws, and will recommend to the government laws that make the mine safer for individuals and eliminate risks for big problems as we've seen.

We are committed to zero, our people are committed to zero. Not only on the coal side, but on the gas as we see new technologies being developed in the Marcellus shale. We look at our processes, we look at our techniques, and we continue to be at zero for our gas companies since 1994. We will continue to do that, and our commitment is there. From the board level through the management level all the way down to all the employees, safety has no rank, zero is a real number, and we intend to drive the Company towards that goal. We don't believe we're perfect, but be believe we can achieve a perfect place when it comes to the safety of individuals.

Let's talk about assets a little bit. Coal assets, 4.3 billion tons. Dominant position in the Pittsburgh 8 seam. I think the most prolific and valuable seam of coal in North America. We're in a very low cost position there. High margin position, as you see what we have put out, and that we are committed to the coal business and will expand that coal business as the markets develop going forward.

Let's talk about gas. Between CNX Gas acquisition, all the way back in the Dominion acquisition, we have a very powerful division inside CONSOL of 2.9 trillion cubic feet of gas that is proven, with a lot more to prove out. Huge opportunities. As Bill talked about, these opportunities do not have a timeframe on them. We will drill them and do it according to the value that we see in the marketplace on the timeframe that's good for our shareholders. Very high margin position, low cost position there, and I think what's interesting, any gas market that we've seen in the last 10 years, this division has value and has margins that are substantial to keep adding volume there.

Two great assets that we plan to develop, one is the BMX mine. I believe it would be the lowest cost mine in the Pittsburgh 8 seam and one of the highest quality mines in the Pittsburgh 8 seam that would be sold as high vol met coal into the international markets or in the domestic markets.

Clearly, we made the acquisition on the Marcellus shale from Dominion and all the other asset they had on the E&P side because we saw the value, and that value will be developed for our shareholders going forward. That 750,000 acres of Marcellus shale we will prove out to show that that was a very good acquisition, and by the end of the year, we'll have 30 wells in that to prove that, and you can see the results as we announce. They're better than we thought it was going to be, and we think that will just continue to be a great story for our shareholders. So growth in gas and coal are real to us. We have the financial strength to interally do this between our balance sheet and our borrowing capabilities to expand these values for our shareholder going forward.

We are focused on creating shareholder value. We will develop the low cost assets in both coal and gas. We are investigating monetizing non-core assets in coal and gas that are beyond our ten to 15 year plan. We are serious about that. We intend to bring value to our -- net present value to our shareholders in a proper way so it reflects in the share price.

We to continue to expand coal market segments in Asia, South America, Europe in both high vol met coal, low vol met coal and steam coal. And as you see, at the highest margins, I think in the industry. The acquisition of the Dominion E&P business in Appalachia has given us the opportunity to double our earnings capability on the same geologic, geographic, political and fossil fuel footprint that we've been operating on since 1864. 70% of electricity fuel comes from these two products in the most energy intense part of the world. We believe we have the best position in both of those. We did not have to leave our backyard to add more value for our shareholders, and we believe that we can double our earnings capability by the end of 2012 by the acquisition of this Dominion asset. We are solidly in a very solid position marketwise on our met contracts for the year. We think they're great opportunities for next year. We will meet whatever the world price is on the met side and have the highest margin based on our low-cost position. Rising steam prices that we see now based on a heavy burn in the winter and now a heavy burn in the summer, we see real value being created for the end of 2010 and 2011 as we negotiate steam prices in our major domestic markets. And we see real opportunity to continue to move coal into Asia, based on the high vol marketing that we've done recently.

What we are seeing in the marketplace right now is the drag is in on the industrial load side o the utilities. Utilities are telling us that industrial load, if it was off year to year 12% to 15%, it's been gaining at about 1% per month back on the industrial load. So, there is a rebound in the economy, and we think that not only strengthens steam coal prices, but will eventually strengthen gas prices as well. So, having said that, I'd like to open it up and see what's on the mind of everybody and answer the questions. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions) First to the line of Brian Singer with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning.

Good morning, Brian.

First question on costs. Just wondering if you could give us your thoughts on the cost -- potential cost creep, both as it relates to northern Appalachia and central Appalachia. And what you're seeing a on company specific basis, what's regulatory driven and what potential cost inflation you might be seeing beyond that.

I think if you look quarter to quarter, our cost is more related to volume than it is to regulatory issues. I think going forward, there will be some regulatory issues, and that cost hasn't been decided, put into our model yet, as we see what the new laws and so forth are. Keep if mind, northern App coal position in all Appalachia coal. Central App tends to be the higher cost, because I think there's a movement towards underground mining, a surge of underground mining because of lack of permits on surface mining, so you're going to see those costs rise.

As it relates to CONSOL, I believe that we probably will stay in the position we're in in central App and expand our low cost position in northern App because it's much higher margin position for us and has better economics. We're not seeing a lot of pressure right on commodities, labor seems to be pretty stable. And I think if you look at the second quarter itself, was more of a volume issue. As I've always said on these calls, CONSOL's very lumpy in terms of cost structure or quarter to quarter, but over the year, we're very close to what we predicted, and I think we'll be that way this year.

Great, thank you. And secondly on the gas business. Can you give us an update, both on your interest in bringing in any kind of partner or doing asset sales within the -- within your large Marcellus position? And how you're thinking about potential well results out of West Virginia as you add a rig there, relative to the well result and the recent well results you've seen in Green County?

Well, on the latter, we're very optimistic about what can be done in the West Virginia area. The people are down there, and some of the people are already developing down there, having very good success. We believe we can take that same success and move it forward. In fact, operations people, Nick has actually talked to me about, he thinks it could be as good as the Green County area in Pennsylvania. So we're optimistic about that, but we will prove that out and we'll have a rig if there by the end of the month, so we're optimistic about that piece of it.

In terms of the overall, we have a big footprint in gas. We have a lot of opportunity. There were other opportunities even beyond the Marcellus shale in the E&P side of what we bought from Dominion, and we also had the Huron shale and the Chattanooga piece down south.

We're seeing real opportunities in all of those, and -- but what we look at, as we put our ten to 15 year plan together, clearly, that is not what we would consider core value to us, based on transportation and how it's located within the rest of the acreage that we have. We will find some way to monetize that, and then we'll monetize that to the benefit of the net present value to our shareholders, which will reflect in share price. That is all in operation. We are talking to people, we have a good plan in place, and I'm very optimistic that this value is going to come back to our shareholders quicker than what we originally thought.

Great, thank you.

The next question is from Shneur Gurshuni with UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, guys.

Hi, Shneur.

A couple of questions. Starting on the coal side. I was wondering if you could give us some commentary about European thermal opportunities, where you see opportunities in Europe and the likelihood that you'll be contracting further for thermal (inaudible) to Europe for 2011.

Okay, I'll let Bob Pusateri speak to that.

Hi, Shneur.

Hello.

Shneur, first I'll say this. We've been engaged over the last six weeks with several utilities in Europe, and we are pretty far along with signing a term deal for a substantial amount of tons of thermal coal into Europe. We've also responded to several requests for proposals for other utilities in Europe, and we believe that we'll have some successes there as well. The inventory stages in Europe are coming down, even though they haven't had an extremely hot summer as we have had here in the United States. Inventories are still dropping, and as you can see by the API2 index pricing, where it's now over 100, and we see that as very good for us going forward. We've signed some business for 2011 at prices around $68 a ton.

Great. And one more question on coal, then one on gas. You mentioned in your press release, you're kind of doing a strategic review with respect to some met coal reserves in central Appalachia. What prevents you from actually -- deciding to actually go ahead and just execute and put through the reserves yourselves rather than finding a partner? Is it cash flow related, and would you consider pulling back on some legacy gas drilling just due to gas prices, to go to after the higher margin coal opportunity?

Well, we'll do what is best for our shareholder, net present value. We look at these assets in competition with each other. If there are very high margins we can pick up there, at the net present value level. Now, remember, the development cycle of gas and coal are on two different cycles, so it's a matter of bringing the money back as quick as we can. When we look at central App, clearly there are permitting issues in central App, and we tend to have higher margins in the north, and so we'll look at all of those issues. Now, we'll either mine it, we'll partner or we'll sell it, depending on what the best thing for our shareholders are. It's all about giving value back.

Great, and one last question with respect to gas. Your EURs for these wells were much higher than anything that we've seen out of you guys in the past. I was wondering if you happen to have IP rates or 30 day IT rates with respect to those wells. (inaudible)

Nick, can you talk to that? Yes, I'll let Nick talk to you about that.

Sure.

Shneur, the wells that we disclosed there were the wells that are tied into line in 2010 to date. And if you look at the 50 day average for the IPs that that would correspond to, it's somewhere around 4.5 million a day.

4.5 million a day. And that's what gives you the confidence on those EURs.

Yes.

Great. Thank you very much.

You bet.

And next go to the line of Kuni Chen with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Hi, Kuni.

Hi, good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Just a question on the met coal reserves that you had talked about monetizing. Can you give us a little bit more color on that, talk about capital spending that would be required if you develop it yourself? And can you also give us some details on the size of the reserve block?

Well, these are met coal reserves that we typically have permitted. We have mined them in the past as the [Amanoti] area, I guess would be part of the heart of that area. The capital structure, we can get you those numbers. There's a lot of detail there. If we decide to go out with that, there will be -- we'll probably put that into the market, but we do believe that it has the capability of about 5 million tons a year, and we think it has EBITDA capability of about $350 million a year. So I think that it's a strong position. We'll either mine it ourselves or monetize it. One way or the other, our shareholders get value back.

Right, and then how about the size of the reserve block? That would help us to at least sort of think about the value of that?

Off the top of my head, it's seems like there's about 100 million -- 80 to a 100 million tons there.

Great, great. And then a common thing that we've seen through some of the other companies this earnings season is just underground costs moving up and less productivity. What impacts are you seeing there? Do you think this starts more in the central App region and then start toes to bleed out to other underground regions?

I'll let Nick talk to you about that.

Thanks.

In the Company, we probably spend somewhere in excess of $200 million a year on what we would deem or what others would deem safety and compliance. But when you look at the reality of that, they vast majority of that $200 million are also efficiency and productivity improvements, because safety and compliance go hand and hand with productivity and improvement. When you look at the new regulations coming down, there's probably going to a portion of that that may result incrementally in our unit cost. But I think that would be in the minority, I think the bulk of it will ultimately resolve itself in increased efficiencies. We don't expect an appreciable change in our unit cost as a result of it.

Thanks, guys, good luck.

You bet.

And next go to the line of Brett Levy with Jefferies & Company. Please go ahead.

Hello, guys. In terms of the CapEx going forward for -- based on where your plans are around current natural gas price and that kind of thing, talk about what the number is for 2010, maybe even 2011, how much of it is the BMX mine, how much of it development of Dominion or CNX Energy assets? If you can give a little detail around the CapEx going forward and what it's all going to.

Sure. We added a $100 million for the year, and that's going to the gas side, and most of that is around the Marcellus Shale development. On the BMX side, we are developing the mains for that mine, and that a cost that we're incurring right now. And on the capital side, I would say we probably have committed $15 million to $20 million this year on the development of that. I think next year, it could be as high as a $100 million, and I think going forward, once the whole project is done, it will be right around $500 million. To get BMX up and running between 5 million and 6 million tons a year.

And so essentially, just so I get the math right, you got to put $500 million in, and you'll be getting $350 million of EBITDA out per year?

No, that 350 that I was talking about is more related to the potential sale of central App [Amanori] properties. Those same properties that we have mined in the past. The EBITDA related to BMX mine is much higher. We could probably run some numbers on that, but it's going to be -- we expect that to be probably 40 -- $35 to $40 ton margins on 5 to 6 million tons a year, so that's a much bigger number.

Got it, but still, quick pay backs?

Oh, yes, oh, yes.

Alright, thanks.

That's probably going to be one of the most profitable mines in the United States when it comes online.

Do you have an overall CapEx number for 2011 for us as you now think about it?

We have not announced that yet, and we will -- we typically announce that at the first of the year.

Thanks very much, guys.

You bet.

And we go to Michael Dudas with Jefferies & Company. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, gentlemen. First question, talk about maybe the dynamics in the eastern coal fields. You're pretty aggressive on the central App production declines. Is -- are you looking at Illinois and PRB taking much of that and therefore using your high quality coal? Again, it seems like your strategy is put forth to sell outside the country as better margins. Is that you where you see the mix shifting as your utility companies figure out not only the central App production issues, but also the new care rules with regards to scrubbers and emissions, et cetera?

Mike, this is Brett. I'll have Bob talk to you about that. But first comment is strategically, we're going to sell at the highest margin whether it's domestic or international, and I'll turn it to him from there.

Hello Mike, when we look at replacement coal for central App, we first take into account that Illinois basin coal will come east as well as PRB coal. But in addition to that, we see some specific places where we're looking to put our northern App coal. Given the fact that the railroads have been open to moving our northern App coal into the south, we see this as a huge market opportunity for us going forward. So we already have begun discussions with a major utility in the south for northern App coal as a replacement for central App coal, and we see this continuing.

I appreciate that. My second question is, Brett, looking at your gas positioning in the marketplace, is it safe to say your investment in gas is driven by economics, and the industry right now is still investing in other ways that's causing this oversupply? It's a pretty big pull on bulls and bears on what's going to happen to the gas market, but I think net-net, people are thinking gas is going to be a fairly relatively low price than what it was a few years ago. Is that something that -- is how you think about things as you add new capital to the gas business?

Clearly, we're going to add capital where it makes the highest margin for us, whether it's coal or gas, and I think I've made that clear to everybody. We believe that there's going to be a big supply of gas coming out of the Marcellus shale. We also believe it's going to take billions of dollars to develop it. We believe that the price of gas is more related to the industrial load in the United States right now than it is to supply.

Say, for instance, if our economy got hot in the next 18 months, we believe gas prices would rise pretty fast, just based on supply. So a lot of talk you hear about -- people believe that Marcellus Shale is already capitalized. It's just beginning. And so it will take years to develop it out, and you'll see a shift in supply and gas. But what you are going to do is see companies like CONSOL have the lowest cost position in any given market. In the meantime, we'll either deploy our money to the Marcellus shale, or we'll deploy it to the BMX project or both, depending on where we see these markets. So, I wouldn't -- I remember in 2001 and 2004 where the prediction of $2 gas to $3 gas, and then it was $4 gas to $5 gas, and every time the market spiked right behind that. So, a lot of this chatter I think is premature, because the gas supply is not that robust at this point in time. The demand is down, but supply hasn't changed that much.

My final question is, regulatory and legislative issues in the US, how do you see those trends impacting one way or another CONSOL Energy?

Well, clearly the issues around water, the issues around air, the issues around mining permits, all of those kind of things restrict supply to the marketplace. As we see the economy rebound, the demand for energy, as you see in China -- China just now has said that they're burning more oil than anybody else in the world. Guess what? They're economy is on a full blast growth pattern. As ours comes back, we're going to need more energy, and we think the capitalized side of that is undercapitalized. We believe that will drive prices, and I don't believe in a hot economy there's enough to energy capitalized in the United States, and we think that will drive prices and margin for CONSOL Energy.

Thank you, Brett.

One other thing I wanted to say, before I said when we talked about central App, I said about a 100 million on -- we would consider selling a 100 million tons of reserves. I was just thinking about one piece of it. The total tons of reserves that we would consider in that area is about 300 million, because there is three properties, and I was just thinking about one of them when I said 100 selling. So I wanted to correct that on the phone.

Great. Thanks, Brett.

Yes.

Our next question is from Jeremy Sussman with Brean Murray. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning.

Hi, Jeremy.

Hi, you talked in your press release about, and you mentioned on the call about European pricing in the $68 range for 2011 and then a little higher, I think $73 for 2012. When you think about signing term business, how do those prices fit in with where your expectations are?

Well, Jeremy, we were pleased with the $68 and $73 number posted for 2011 and 2012. What we're going to do is, we're going to layer in our open position for 2011 into 2012 to make sure that we give ourselves enough flexibility that in the event something happens here in the United States, that we have other outlets for our coal. And given the fact that we are the low cost producer in northern App, as you can appreciate, with those types of selling numbers, we make a substantial margin. So we're very pleased with the outcome of those negotiations.

Sure, no, that's great. And then as I think about your full year production this year and next, with everything, low vol, high vol, and thermal, what type of annual sort of production figures should we be thinking about here?

For 2010? Was that your question?

Yes, and 2011 if you could.

2010, I don't think we've announced 2011, but is going to be between 62.5 million and 63 million tons.

Okay. And then just lastly on the cost -- on the -- same thing on the cost front. Relative to Q1 costs versus Q2 costs, where do you think the back half is going to shake out?

I think it's going to be -- actually, I believe it's going to be right in between the two quarters, because we're going to have an upward tick in production for the third quarter, and it will be a pretty -- real strong fourth quarter, it looks like on the production side, the way the plans and the mines are laid out right now.

Great. Thanks, Brett.

You bet.

Next we go to the line of Bill Eagan with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how the Bailey coal to China. Are you still seeing strong demand for that?

Sure. Bill, during the quarter, as you can see from the release, we shipped roughly 700,000 tons of our high vol Bailey coal into China. Our estimate for the balance of the year is roughly another 1.1 million, for a total of 2.7 million tons for the year, and I think that's consistent with what we said in our first quarter release. The average price, Bill, for those tons in the last six months of the year will be slightly over $76, and it's a combination of our Bailey coal, as well as about 200,000 or 250,000 tons of our Blacksville coal.

Thanks. And maybe initial expectations for next year? (inaudible)

Well, we've spent the year first -- at least the first six months, establishing CONSOL as a major player in the global coking coal market. Next year, at the very least, we would duplicate our efforts for 2010. So, we're looking at at least 2.7 million tons for next year, and we're hoping that things will improve and that we'll be able to push that number higher for 2011.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And we'll go to Paul Forward with Stifel Nicolaus. Please go ahead.

Hi, Paul.

Good morning. Just following up on that last question. How far apart are we as far as -- we know there has been some softening in demand for the export high vol. How far apart are we on the -- in selling it as a high vol versus selling it as a thermal? Are we close to the point that the thermal markets have picked up, and you really -- you don't have that same kind of price motivation to keep moving the volumes to the export market as a high vol?

Sure, Paul, that's an excellent question. Pauly, if we were looking at the short term spot market for delivery in September, I would tell you that the gap between those two numbers is definitely shrinking. It's probably an eight -- for a Bailey type coal, it's $80 versus $73 to $75 here in the domestic. Longer term, it's probably -- $8 for 2011 would be the difference. Now, given the fact that CONSOL is able to control the transportation, we believe that we can possibly do better than $80 for 2011 in selling coal into Asia.

Alright. And shifting over to the production side, you had about a -- when you compare the first quarter and the second quarter numbers on thermal coal production, you were down about a million tons in the second quarter. I was just wondering, we've talked about some of the cost pressures. I was just wondering, was this -- was the decline part of a desire by CONSOL to work down its inventories which had gotten up to 3.8 million tons at the end of the first quarter? Or was the decline more related to unplanned productivity issues related to workers safety oversight?

Well, I think two things happened there. Once is we don't like to build inventory, as you know, so I don't think we're working as many Saturdays as we could, and I think we do that on purpose. The other thing is, we did want to bring that inventory down. But in a mining cycle of a big mining company like this, a couple of things happen.

One is, you decide whether -- depend on the market and inventory how many Saturdays you're going to work on all these longwalls. You look at your development cycle, you look at your movement of equipment, and then you look at how all of that fits over the year. So our development is on pace, our inventories are ripe, our cost structure was a little bit higher, and we had a couple of roof falls on major belt lines in the second quarter that actually took out some productivity. But if you look at it over the year, we're in a very solid development position as well as financial position on the coal side. So, I would say it was just a lumpy quarter, but we are consciously looking at how many days we work based on inventory. I think you hit it on the question.

Okay. Well, thank you, Brett.

Our next question is from Pearce Hammond with Simmons & Company International. Please go ahead.

Good morning.

Hi, Pearce

There's certainly been a lot of foreign interest in the Marcellus shale, and with prices being paid well above what you guys bought in at. How do you see the timing on a closing of a JV, and then what major criteria are you utilizing to evaluate a potential JV?

I'll let Nick tuck too talk to that.

The opportunity JV, we really look at the asset base from two components. And remember, both of these components, the same issue applies, 95%, as Brett said, is held by production. So, the treadmill, so to speak, that many in the basin are on with regard to drilling commitments, that does not apply us to, and that's critically important. Because A, it buys us timing and B, it creates optionality for any potential buyer or JV parter that would want to come in. They know that they'll be able to drill at higher rates when gas prices are high, and they'll to able to stop or throttle back when gas prices are low. If you have drilling commitments, you can't do that. You've got to drill to hold the leases.

So, with that being said, you look at the 750,000 acres, it's two broad groups. One group, or the acres, as Brett said, that we'll get to in the next ten to 15 years for our own development plan. As Bill said, we've got the offer to cash flow to get to that, and frankly, that math becomes pretty simple with regards to a JV. Are they willing to pay more than what we think we can do with it on our own development plan? The second group are the acres we're not going to get to, and that's where the quickest path to monetization outside of our core Marcellus area that we operate within would be either sale or lease.

And then as far as timing of getting something done, do you think it's before the end of this year?

By the end of this year, we'll know definitively what the northern West Virginia and central PA acreage positions look like because of our drilling program. So, I think we'll have a much better view on our ten to 15 year drill and development plan on a standalone basis, and at that point, I think we'll be in a much better position to see not just what asset based portion we want to monetize, but what the market opportunities are with regard to it.

Keep in mind, we'll have four rigs running by the end of the year, which will give us a lot of information on where we see core values and give us a good look at this. In the quarter we're talking about, we were only -- we only closed it -- we had two months in that quarter when we closed it. So, we're doing lot of valuation, but that valuation, from my perspective as the CEO, it's coming along very well with a very good plan.

And then a final question on your gas hedging policy. No change in hedges for 2011 and 2012, but yet we're adding another rig here towards the end of the year, so if you could update your gas hedging policy.

I think the hedging decisions come down to the same types of issues we spoke about earlier, rate of return NPV given. We don't know what gas prices are going to do any more than anyone else out there with regard to the short or long term. So, I think moving forward with gas being a more -- a higher proportion of what we're doing than what we've done historically, bigger balance between coal and gas, we probably will consider additional hedging going into calendar years, going into 18 or 24 months strip period as a matter of policy. Now, what that level is and how much we hedge and when, we're still working on that, it breaks direction.

Thank you very much.

Our next question is from John Bridges with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hello, John. Hi, good morning Brett, everybody.

Just a bookkeeping question and then a bigger one. What sort of DD&A should we work with going forwards for the new and large company?

You mean Dominion assets? The conventional assets are probably about $2, and Marcellus shale is, right now is probably about $1.80, $1.90, and we expect that to go down as we get more volumes there.

Okay, great. And then Brett, I hear what you're saying about the big advantage to CONSOL of not being forced to drill on these assets, but from an investor's perspective, that's a double-edged sword. Because where you have got inventories who are looking for shorter term performance, then it means that the benefit of those is not going to be seen for some time. How do you square the circle between the great strategic position you've got in this new gas portfolio and the needs of investors in a sort of 12 month time frame?

Well, that's a good question and obviously, what I said was, we are going to monetize and move the value of this back to our shareholders as quickly as possible. So when we look at the core of what we can do ourselves or the best economics, whether it's a JV, or whether it's our own balance sheet or whether it's a sale, that's all going to be evaluated. We're not going to put this and lock it into the ground. It's nice to have that optionality which doesn't put us where we're borrowing money to hold leases, which is a very inefficient way of doing it. That was the point I was trying to make. The other point I am trying to make is we're going to bring the value of this forward, and we're going to have a lot of data within two months that gives us some very special answers about what we're going to do. So, that's maturing, John, and I can tell you this. We will bring it forward because I said on the last call, our commitment to bring this value forward to our shareholder.

Okay. That's great, and congratulations on the drill drilling results from Green County.

Thank you.

We'll go to Dave Gagliano with Credit Suisse, please go ahead.

Hi guys, thanks for taking the questions. Unfortunately, stocks taking a bit of a hit today, and I think one of the issues is the underlying operating results in the coal segment, which you've given us some really good information to help explain why Q2 isn't representative of the next few quarters. But I was hoping to try to avoid some similar surprises in quarterly volume variability. Can you give us a bit more detail on the expected rebound in Q3 and Q4, i.e., timing of longwall moves, miner vacations and things like that? And are those roof fall issues now behind the company, or are you still working through those -- ?

Well, we got -- I don't want to emphasize roof falls. That was part of it, but roof falls happen every year when the mine dries out and so forth. What we would expect is about 15.2 million tons of production in third quarter and about 16.5 million tons in the fourth quarter, and that's the way we look at it now. So the cost structures is associated with that difference in the 15 million tons in the second quarter. And so -- but if you look at overall, we're going to between 62.5 and 63 for the year, our cost structure is going to be very close to what our plan was to start with. So --

So there's basically no change to the outlook?

No, no.

Okay. Perfect, that's very helpful. And then just on the cost. You mentioned earlier that the costs will be between Q1 and Q2 numbers. I'm just wondering with the uptick in production in Q3 and Q4, why they wouldn't be below (inaudible).

I think the question was about the second quarter -- or the third quarter.

Okay.

I would expect the fourth quarter to be more like the first quarter or even better.

Okay, perfect. That was it. Thank you.

And we'll go to David Lipschitz with CLSE. Please go ahead.

Quick question. Over the next two, three, five years, what do you think your asset base in terms of production will be, and how will costs be impacted by that, do you think?

Nick, why don't you spike do that.

This going to be the coal side?

Yes.

The coal side will see, up until the end of 2013, that same production level that we're looking at with regard to 2010, give or take a million tons here or there, depending on market conditions, that we take our lead from the sales group on that. And the cost structure should be somewhat similar to what we're seeing this year with regard to that. So, I'll call it steady state for lack of a better term on the coal side until the end of 2013, 2014 when BMX comes online, Okay?

Okay.

On the gas side, we would expect our unit costs to decline from what we're seeing currently, because at some point with production growth ramp up in the Marcellus shale, we're going to start seeing the economies of scale for capitalization done to date with regard to midstream and processing and rigs and all those things.

And then just --

Keep in mind on the coal side, though, is that even though costs are extremely important, we look at those. We really focus in on margins and margin expansion, so there will be -- certainly be opportunities for us to capture some business that will look at -- look overall as relatively high costs, but if we expand our margin, we'll get into those businesses.

And just a quick -- I don't want to say accounting question or -- You had -- last quarter, you had 900,000 tons of coking coal signed for next year at 170, and now you have 1.1 at 160. What was that 200,000 tons to bring the price down?

I think 100,000 of it was a settlement that we did where we sold 100,000 tons at Buchanan at a $20 margin. That was one of it. And the other 100,000 tons, I don't know --

Yes, David, the other 100,000 tons is just some carryovers from some previous years that we're showing that we'll have to fulfill those obligations for 2011.

Okay. Thank you.

Our next question is from Dave Katz with JPMorgan, please go ahead.

Actually, the question that you just answered was one of my two. The other was a simple bookkeeping question. In the non-controlling interest balance in the balance sheet went from a strong positive to a negative. Now, I understand why it went down following to the CNX gas transaction, but I was curious why it's actually showing the negative balance.

You're right. It's a technical accounting issue. It has to do with variable interest entities, and it's a drilling company that we made some guarantees to, and as a result, we have to show them consolidation, and it shows up in that line. As you said, it's totally immaterial and really not significant going forward.

Okay. Thank you.

And we'll go to Brian Yu with Citigroup. Pleased go ahead.

Hi, Brian.

Hi, this is Adam on for Brian, actually. My question was just answered, so I'll take myself out of queue.

Okay. With that, operator, I think we'll call an end to the questions. And I'll be available for the rest of the day, if anybody has any followup questions, I'll be glad to try to answer them for you. Could you, John, please instruct our callers on the replay information?

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, this conference is available for replay. It starts today at 12:30 PM Eastern Time and will last until August 5 at midnight. You may access the replay at any time by dialing 800-475-6701, or 320-365-3844. The access code is 164326. Those numbers again, 800-475-6701 or 320-365-3844, and the access code 164326. That does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.