CONSOL Energy and CNX Gas Announce Management Consolidation
21 January 2009 - 1:43AM
PR Newswire (US)
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CONSOL Energy Inc.
(NYSE: CNX) and its majority-owned subsidiary, CNX Gas Corporation
(NYSE:CXG) have made managerial changes affecting CONSOL Energy and
CNX Gas, all effective January 16, 2009. The goal of the management
consolidation is to improve performance and profitability of both
companies as well as to increase efficiency and reduce costs across
all business areas, by creating a more unified organizational
structure that will have functional, operational, and financial
responsibility for all coal, gas, and related assets, while still
recognizing the separate status of CNX Gas as a public company with
shareholders in addition to CONSOL Energy. J. Brett Harvey,
President and Chief Executive Officer - CONSOL Energy Inc. has been
appointed to the additional position of Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer - CNX Gas Corporation. Peter B. Lilly, President
- Coal, will retire, following a career in the coal industry of
nearly 40 years, during which Mr. Lilly served his country, the
coal industry and CONSOL Energy with distinction. While at CONSOL
Energy, he successfully negotiated a new National Bituminous Coal
Wage Agreement between the Bituminous Coal Operators Association
and the United Mine Workers of America, completed the integration
of the former AMVEST mining operations into CONSOL, and was a
senior spokesman for the company in the articulation of company
views on energy and environmental policy. He served as the
company's representative on the boards of directors of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, Waterways Council, Inc., and the World Coal
Institute. Nicholas J. DeIuliis has been appointed Executive Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer for CONSOL Energy. He also
will serve as President and Chief Operating Officer of CNX Gas
Company. DeIuliis will have overall responsibility for energy
production (coal and gas), focusing particularly on production
efficiency and production coordination between coal and gas. Robert
F. Pusateri has been appointed Executive Vice President - Energy
Sales and Transportation Services for both companies. He will
continue to serve as President of CONSOL Energy Sales Company.
Pusateri will have overall responsibility for sales of coal and
gas, as well as transportation services and the management of CO2
credits generated by the two companies. William J. Lyons remains
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He will have
responsibility for the essential financial functions of the CONSOL
Energy and CNX Gas. P. Jerome Richey has been appointed Executive
Vice President - Corporate Affairs and Chief Legal Officer for both
companies and also will serve as Secretary to each company. Robert
P. King has been appointed Executive Vice President - Business
Advancement and Support Services for both companies. He will be
responsible for identifying and developing new business
opportunities as well as managing critical, non-financial support
services for both companies. CONSOL Energy Inc., a high-Btu
bituminous coal and coal bed methane company, is a member of the
Standard & Poor's 500 Equity Index and has annual revenues of
$3.7 billion. CNX Gas is the leading E&P Company in the
Appalachian Basin. CONSOL has 17 bituminous coal mining complexes
in six states and reports proven and probable coal reserves of 4.5
billion tons. CONSOL Energy was named one of America's most admired
companies in 2005 by Fortune magazine. It received the U.S.
Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining National
Award for Excellence in Surface Mining for the company's innovative
reclamation practices in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Also in 2003, the
company was listed in Information Week magazine's "Information Week
500" list for its information technology operations. In 2002, the
company received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate
Protection Award. Additional information about the company can be
found at its web site: http://www.consolenergy.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements Various statements in this document,
including those that express a belief, expectation, or intention,
as well as those that are not statements of historical fact, are
forward-looking statements (as defined in Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995). The forward-looking statements may
include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success
of specific projects, our future production, revenues, income and
capital spending. When we use the words "believe," "intend,"
"expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "would," "will,"
"estimate," "plan," "predict," "project," or their negatives, or
other similar expressions, the statements which include those words
are usually forward-looking statements. When we describe strategy
that involves risks or uncertainties, we are making forward-looking
statements. The forward-looking statements in this document speak
only as of the date of this document; we disclaim any obligation to
update these statements unless required by securities law, and we
caution you not to rely on them unduly. We have based these
forward-looking statements on our current expectations and
assumptions about future events. While our management considers
these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are
inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive,
regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most
of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our
control. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but
are not limited to: reliance on customers extending existing
contracts or entering into new long-term contracts for coal;
reliance on major customers; our inability to collect payments from
customers if their creditworthiness declines; the disruption of
rail, barge and other systems that deliver our coal, or pipeline
systems which deliver our gas; a loss of our competitive position
because of the competitive nature of the coal industry and the gas
industry, or a loss of our competitive position because of
overcapacity in these industries impairing our profitability; our
inability to hire qualified people to meet replacement or expansion
needs; coal users switching to other fuels in order to comply with
various environmental standards related to coal combustion; the
inability to produce a sufficient amount of coal to fulfill our
customers' requirements which could result in our customers
initiating claims against us; the risks inherent in coal mining
being subject to unexpected disruptions, including geological
conditions, equipment failure, timing of completion of significant
construction or repair of equipment, fires, accidents and weather
conditions which could cause our results to deteriorate; increases
in the price of commodities used in our mining operations and could
impact our cost of production; obtaining governmental permits and
approvals for our operations; the effects of government regulation;
the effects of stringent federal and state safety regulations; the
effects of mine closing, reclamation and certain other liabilities;
uncertainties in estimating our economically recoverable coal and
gas reserves; we do not insure against all potential operating
risks; the outcomes of various legal proceedings, which proceedings
are more fully described in our reports filed under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934; increased exposure to employee related
long-term liabilities; our participation in multi-employer pension
plans may expose us to obligations beyond the obligation to our
employees; lump sum payments made to retiring salaried employees
pursuant to our defined benefit pension plan; our ability to comply
with laws or regulations requiring that we obtain surety bonds for
workers' compensation and other statutory requirements;
acquisitions that we recently have made or may make in the future
including the accuracy of our assessment of the acquired businesses
and their risks, achieving any anticipated synergies, integrating
the acquisitions and unanticipated changes that could affect
assumptions we may have made; the anti-takeover effects of our
rights plan could prevent a change of control; risks in exploring
for and producing gas; new gas development projects and exploration
for gas in areas where we have little or no proven gas reserves;
the availability of field services, equipment and personnel for
drilling and producing gas; replacing our natural gas reserves
which if not replaced will cause our gas reserves and gas
production to decline; costs associated with perfecting title for
gas rights in some of our properties; we need to use unproven
technologies to extract coalbed methane on some of our properties;
location of a vast majority of our gas producing properties in
three counties in southwestern Virginia, making us vulnerable to
risks associated with having our gas production concentrated in one
area; other persons could have ownership rights in our advanced gas
extraction techniques which could force us to cease using those
techniques or pay royalties; the coalbeds from which we produce
methane gas frequently contain water that may hamper production;
and other factors discussed in our 2007 Form 10-K under "Risk
Factors," as updated by any subsequent Form 10-Qs, which are on
file at the Securities and Exchange Commission. DATASOURCE: CONSOL
Energy Inc. CONTACT: Thomas F. Hoffman of CONSOL Energy Inc.,
+1-724-485-4060 Web Site: http://www.consolenergy.com/
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