Situation Continues to Improve at Buchanan Mine

PITTSBURGH, July 20  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Air monitoring at the Buchanan Mine near Mavisdale, Virginia, continues to show an overall improvement in the underground mine atmosphere. There are now 62 established monitoring stations that are measuring gas levels in the mine.  Overall levels of carbon monoxide continue to decline, indicating that there is no active combustion in the mine.  Engineers believe that carbon monoxide in the mine is now being swept from the mine by the active ventilation flow. In addition, cameras inserted in several bore holes showed no smoke or signs of combustion in the mine and temperature readings from boreholes indicate the mine temperatures are at ambient levels.

The source of the carbon monoxide has not been determined.  Engineers theorize that it may be from an ignition of a small amount of methane caused by one of the roof falls that occurred two weeks ago.

Last week, Buchanan Mine engineers submitted plans to federal and state safety agencies to drill additional boreholes into the mine to provide additional monitoring points. Several more boreholes are being drilled to provide additional monitoring stations. Inert gas is being pumped into several of the holes as a precautionary measure.

Once all monitoring stations show acceptable levels of the gases being monitored, and agency approval is secured, teams can re-enter the mine.

The mine continues to be ventilated and to ship coal from above ground inventories.  There are no employees underground at the present time.

Production at the mine was idled on Monday, July 9, 2007 after several roof falls in previously mined areas, damaged some of the ventilation controls inside the mine, requiring a general evacuation of the mine by employees. No one was injured during the evacuation.

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. It has 15 bituminous coal mining complexes in six states and reports proven and probable coal reserves of 4.3 billion tons. In addition, the company is a majority shareholder in one of the largest U.S. producers of coalbed methane gas, CNX Gas Corporation.  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 release, 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). The forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success of specific projects and our future production, revenues, income and capital spending. When we use the words "believe," "intend," "expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "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 release speak only as of the date of this release; 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.  These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to, the following:

- the disruption of rail, barge and other systems that deliver our coal, or pipeline systems which deliver our gas;

- our inability to hire qualified people to meet replacement or expansion needs;

- 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;

- uncertainties in estimating our economically recoverable coal and gas reserves; 

  - risks in exploring for and producing gas;
  - obtaining governmental permits and approvals for our operations;


- 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;

- an extended decline in prices we receive for our coal and gas affecting our operating results and cash flows;

- a decrease in the production of our metallurgical coal or a decrease in the price of metallurgical coal could impact our profitability;

- the inability to produce a sufficient amount of coal to fulfill our customers' requirements which could result in our customers initiating claims against us;

- 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 two counties in southwestern Virginia, making us vulnerable to risks associated with having our gas production concentrated in one area;

- we do not insure against all potential operating risks;

- other persons could have ownership rights in our advanced gas extraction techniques which could force us to cease using those techniques or pay royalties;

- 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;

- coal users switching to other fuels in order to comply with various environmental standards related to coal combustion; 

  - the effects of government regulation;
  - the effects of mine closing, reclamation and certain other liabilities;


- the coalbeds from which we produce methane gas frequently contain water that may hamper production;

- 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;

- the outcome of various asbestos litigation cases;

- our ability to comply with laws or regulations requiring that we obtain surety bonds for workers' compensation and other statutory requirements;

- the anti-takeover effects of our rights plan could prevent a change of control; and

- other factors discussed in our 2005 Form 10-K under "Risk Factors," which is on file at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We are including this cautionary statement in this release to make applicable and take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf, of us. 

DATASOURCE: CONSOL Energy Inc.



CONTACT:  Thomas F. Hoffman, 412-831-4060



Web site:  http://www.consolenergy.com/ 

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