Fourth-quarter coal production in the Illinois Basin declined dramatically, down 18.6% from the prior quarter and down 26.8% from the year-ago quarter, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration data.
With most mines reporting, total production in Q4 came to 25.6 million st, the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2009, when production totaled 24.9 million st.
For the year, coal production in the basin totaled 122.7 million st, down 10.6% from 2014. It was the lowest annual total since 2011, when the basin's mines produced 116.5 million st.
The Illinois Basin is made up of mines in Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky.
The aggressive rationalization in Q4 showed most mines with double-digit percentage declines from the prior quarter.
The basin's biggest mine in terms of tons produced, Foresight Energy's Sugar Camp mine, produced 2.3 million st in Q4, down 14% from the prior quarter and down 13.4% from the year-ago period.
The second biggest, Alliance Coal's River View mine, produced 2.1 million st in Q4, down 11.2% from Q3 and down 12.9% from last year.
Bear Run, Peabody Energy's biggest IB mine, produced 1.7 million st in Q4, down 13.5% from the prior quarter and down 18.9% from 2014.
A handful of mines did show production increases in the quarter. Alliance's Hamilton No. 1 mine, formerly known as White Oak, produced 1.7 million st in Q4, up 43.6% from the prior quarter and up 66% from the year-ago quarter.
Murray Energy's New Era mine, part of the Galatia complex, produced 923,000 st in Q4, up 46.2% from the prior quarter but down 40.2% from the year-ago period.
One of the region's newest mines, Rhino Energy's Pennyrile mine, produced 219,000 st in Q4, down 4.4% from the prior quarter but up 97.6% from 2014.
For the basin's largest producers, total production in 2015 for Alliance totaled 35.1 million st, up 4.6% from last year; Peabody produced 20.8 million st in 2015, down 16.6% from last year; Foresight produced 20.1 million st in 2015, down 11.7% from last year; and Murray produced 10.3 million st, down 24.9% from last year.
