Consolidation Coal Company (1860–1991) Consol Energy was originally created in 1860 as the Consolidation Coal Company after several small mining companies in
Western Maryland decided to combine their operations. The company was formally established in 1864 and headquartered in
Cumberland, Maryland for the first 85 years (1864–1945), where the company became the largest
bituminous coal company in the eastern United States. In 1909, Consolidation consolidated with Fairmont Coal Company of West Virginia and the Somerset Coal Company in Pennsylvania. Executives in the first half of the 20th century included
Aretas B. Fleming and
Clarence W. Watson. Western Maryland's coal production rose about 1 million short tons in 1865, exceeded 4 million short tons by the turn of the century, and reached an all-time high of about 6 million short tons in 1907. A small amount of the coal production in the early 1900s was premium smithing coal (as in
blacksmith) that was specially processed and delivered in
boxcars to customers throughout the United States and Canada. In 1945, Consolidation Coal Company was merged with
Pittsburgh Coal Company and its headquarters were moved to
Western Pennsylvania. With growing demand for natural gas in the U.S. following
World War II, Consolidation Coal Company was acquired by the
Continental Oil Company, or Conoco, in 1966. Despite the cost of coal dropping in the 1990s, Consol's long-term contracts and investments in longwall mining techniques allowed the company to remain competitive. Consol also acquired
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1998. In 1999, Consol underwent a public offering (NYSE: CNX) in order to pay down some of the debt the company had incurred with the majority buy-out from Dupont and the acquisition of Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company. Due to uncertainty surrounding demand for coal in the early 2000s, Consol began to place a greater emphasis on diversification, primarily into natural gas. Consol's first major natural gas investment was through the acquisition of MCN Energy Group Inc.'s methane reserves in southwestern Virginia for $160 million. In 2001, Consol acquired Conoco Inc.'s coalbed methane gas production assets in southwestern Virginia. Consol subsidiaries CNX Ventures and CNX Land Resources also began diversification efforts during this time into methane gas and timber and farming. In 2006, Consol spun off its subsidiary CNX Gas as a standalone company, but retained 83 percent of the new company's shares. On June 28, 2006, Consol Energy entered the
S&P 500 replacing
Knight-Ridder. In 2007, CNX Gas also began investing heavily in natural gas exploration in the
Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. In 2010, Consol acquired
Dominion Resources Inc.'s natural gas production and exploration assets for 3.74 billion dollars, which included nearly 500,000 acres of Marcellus potential, tripling Consol's position in the Marcellus to approximately 750,000 acres. Consol also acquired all of the remaining publicly owned shares of CNX Gas for a cash payment of $991 million. In 2011, Consol entered into two separate joint venture agreements to expedite its natural gas production. The first, an agreement with
Noble Energy was to jointly develop the company's 663,350 Marcellus Shale acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The second joint agreement, with
Hess Corporation, jointly explored and developed Consol's nearly 200,000
Utica Shale acres in Ohio. Consol also began an expansion of its Baltimore Terminal in 2011 to increase capacity from 14 million to 16 million tons to increase its revenue from sales of its
metallurgical coal. In 2017, Consol Energy Inc. spun off from CNX Resources Group. Officially announced on November 29, 2017, this move marked the start of Consol Energy Inc. operating as an independent, publicly traded company. In August 2024, Consol Energy and
Arch Resources announced that they entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock
merger of equals to create
Core Natural Resources. In January 2025, the merger was successfully completed. Shares of Core Natural Resources started trading on January 15, 2025 on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CNR" the following day. == Operations and financials ==