The top producing coal mines in the Illinois Basin held production relatively flat in 2019 despite declining coal demand across the U.S.

The 25 largest coal mines in the region produced a total of about 91.5 million tons of coal in 2019, down by about 2.0% from the prior year, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis. The same mines produced about 20.0 million tons of coal in the fourth quarter of 2019, decreasing from 22.8 million tons in the previous quarter and from 23.7 million tons in the year-ago quarter.

A December 2019 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis projected that "most of the Illinois Basin coal industry will be gone" within 20 years. Production in the region will be challenged by new coal plant retirements and reduced use of the coal plants remaining, the report from the sustainability-focused energy think tank said.

"Just in the past year, producers have closed or idled mines that produced almost nine million tons of coal in 2018," the report said. "Further closures are likely, both in the near- and long-term. The Illinois Basin will clearly be hit hard economically by the structural decline of the region's coal industry."

Alliance Resource Partners LP owns five of the top-producing mines in the region. Together, they produced about 27.9 million tons of coal in 2019, increasing from 27.5 million tons of production in 2018.

"In 2019, [Alliance] was able to pick up 2.8 million tons of domestic market share because of mine closings in the Illinois Basin," Alliance President and CEO Joseph Craft said on a Jan. 27 earnings call. "We believe the pressures on other operators are increasing as the headwinds facing the U.S. thermal coal industry persist."

River View, the company's largest mine in the Illinois Basin, produced 11.3 million tons of coal in 2019, increasing from 9.8 million tons in 2018. The company's Cardinal and Gibson mines also produced more coal in 2019 compared to 2018.

The company's other two mines in the region reported lower production in 2019 year over year, including Gibson South with a 22.7% drop to 5.4 million tons.

Foresight Energy LP, which has struggled to make debt payments and was recently delisted from the NYSE, reported 2019 production totaling 19.7 million tons from its three active mines in the region, down 15.3% from the prior year. Murray Energy Corp., which is going through a bankruptcy restructuring, controls Foresight. Murray Energy increased cumulative production from its Pride and Genesis mines in the region from 3.8 million tons in 2018 to 4.0 million tons in 2019 and recently said it was closing the Genesis mine.

Lively Grove increased production from 6.3 million tons to 6.4 million tons. The operation is owned by multiple power generators and feeds the Prairie State Energy Campus.

Peabody Energy Corp. owns five of the largest mines in the region as well. The operations produced about 15.7 million tons of coal in 2019, decreasing from about 16.0 million tons in 2018. The company said on a recent earnings call that it is seeing improved costs as it focuses on core assets after announcing the closure of the Cottage Grove and Wildcat Hills mines in the region and winding down operations at the Somerville mine.

In 2019, Hallador Energy Co. produced about 7.9 million tons of coal from its three top-producing mines in the basin, up from 7.3 million tons in the prior year. On a third-quarter 2019 earnings call, Hallador President and CEO Brent Bilsland suggested there would need to be some supply rationalization in the basin as coal that was being exported returns to the U.S. market.

"The seaborne market for coal is still growing, and the Illinois Basin will soon be needed to return to the export market, but a couple of players will have gone home," Bilsland said.

Hallador is scheduled to report earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2019 on March 9.

Other miners with top-producing mines in the region include Arch Coal Inc., Knight Hawk Holdings LLC, Paringa Resources Ltd. and White Stallion Energy LLC.