Although Murray Energy Holdings Co. on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, its Alabama operations, namely Oak Grove Mine, will not be affected.
A press release from the company confirmed that Murray Energy and many of its subsidiaries have entered into a resurrecting support agreement, however only operations in Ohio, West Virginia, Utah, Kentucky and Colombia were included.
Murray Metallurgical Coal Holdings LLC, Murray Eagle Mining LLC, Murray Alabama Minerals LLC, Murray Maple Eagle Coal LLC, Murray Alabama Coal LLC and Murray Oak Grove LLC did not file petitions and are not part of the company’s Chapter 11 cases.
Murray’s Oak Grove Mine, which is the company’s only mine in the Yellowhammer State, produces approximately two million tons annually of export bound metallurgical (met) coal. The Jefferson County mine was acquired from Seneca Energy earlier this year.
Met coal is used to produce coke, which is critical to the steelmaking process.
The Alabama met coal industry is the Port of Mobile’s largest customer.
In 2018 alone, 11 million short tons of high-quality Alabama-mined met coal was exported to global steelmakers. This amounted to $2 billion worth of met coal being shipped out through the Port of Mobile last year – a dollar amount unprecedented in at least recent history.
Murray Energy is the largest underground coal mining company in the United States.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
