While Alliance Resources saw an increase in oil and gas royalty volumes in the third quarter, it also saw a drop in coal sales, leading to a decrease in revenues. A big decline.
The Tulsa company, known for being one of the largest coal producers in the eastern U.S., saw total revenues in the quarter fall 3.6% to $613.6 million compared to $636.5 million for the 2023 quarter. Alliance said it was “primarily as a result of reduced coal sales prices” as they fell 2.1% due in part to lower export pricing in Appalachia and lower transportation revenues.
With the $613.6 million in total revenue, the firm’s net income totaled $86.3 million or 66 cents a share, far below the $153.7 million and $1.18 per share a year earlier. It figured to be a drop of 13.9%.
EBITDA was also down from $227.6 million in the 2023 quarter to $170.7 million in the just completed quarter. The decline in EBITDA totaled 3.9%.
For the year to date, total revenues were down 4.3% to $1.86 billion compared to $1.94 billion for the same time period in 2023. Again, lower coal sales were blamed, despite higher oil and gas royalties.
“We delivered sequential improvement in revenue, coal sales, and minerals volumes during the third quarter, however revenues were lower than our expectations primarily due to lower coal sales volumes and pricing related to export sales from our MC Mining, Mettiki and Hamilton operations, as well as shipping deferrals on some of our higher priced domestic contracted commitments,” commented Joseph W. Craft III, Chairman, President, and CEO.
He anticipates lower costs at the company’s major mining projects because investments made over the last several years are wrapping up and should deliver lower mining expenses beginning in 2025.