ANNUAL PRODUCTION UP FROM 2007

Once again, the publicly published statistics from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), show that the end-of-year production was 3.5% ahead of last year, 157M v 152M tons.  Southern West Virginia production was 6.4% ahead of 2007 production while northern West Virginia was 4% behind.  Through October, 2008 met exports were 38.9% ahead of 2007 (36.7M v 26.4M tons) while steam exports for 2008 were 30.3M tons compared to 20.2M tons for 2007.  8.5% less coal (28M v 30.6M tons) was imported in 2008.