Coastal States Energy

Index For This Page

This page was last updated on August 23, 2023.

(Return To Utah Coal Index Page)

Overview

Coastal States Energy first came to Utah with its purchase in 1973 of the Sufco mine in Salina Canyon.

(Read more about the Sufco mine)

Coastal States expansion in Utah...

1973 -- Sufco (Southern Utah Fuel Co.)

1975 -- Soldier Creek Coal Co. (including the Banning loadout)

1980 -- Skyline Coal Project

1993 -- Sage Point Coal Co. (Dugout Canyon, replaced Soldier Creek production in 1996 after sale to Canyon Fuel)

1996
Coastal States Energy departed from Utah with the sale in 1996 of its coal mining properties to Canyon Fuel Company, a new company owned jointly by Arco Coal (65%) and Itochu of Japan (35%).

The sale in 1996 included four coal mining properties in Utah: Soldier Creek Coal Company; Sage Point Coal Company; Southern Utah Fuel Company; Skyline Coal Company; along with Coastal Development Company, and Utah Fuel Company. (Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining, Permit C0070039; Dugout Canyon Mine)

(Read more about Canyon Fuel Company)

Coastal States Coal Properties

Banning Loadout

Utah DOGM Coal File 0070034

Opened in 1979 by Soldier Creek Coal Company; closed in 2000 by Arch Coal

Dugout Canyon Mine

Utah DOGM Coal File 0070039

Development (roads, etc.) started in 1996 by Canyon Fuel; production started in 1998 by Canyon Fuel

(Read more about the Dugout mine)

Skyline Coal Project

Utah DOGM Coal File 0070005

Development started in 1980; production started in 1982 by Coastal States

(Read more about the Skyline mine)

Soldier Creek Coal Co.

Utah DOGM Coal File 0070018

Development began in 1975; production began in 1976, by Soldier Creek Coal Company; closed in 1999.

Southern Utah Fuel Co. (Sufco)

Utah DOGM Coal File 0410002

Development began in 1910, by Southern Utah Fuel company; production began in 1911; sold to Coastal States in 1973

(Read more about the Sufco mine) (Includes brief histories of Arch Coal and Arco Coal)

Timeline

Coastal States Energy, 1973

1973
In a move to diversify its energy holdings beyond natural gas, Coastal States Gas Company purchased the Southern Utah Fuel Company. (Wikipedia, Coastal Corporation)

December 21, 1973
"A Texas-based energy company has purchased Southern Utah Fuel Co.'s Salina Canyon coal mine and has announced plans to double the output of the Sevier County operation." (Provo Daily Herald, December 21, 1973)

The coal loading site at Sharp (mile post P700.6) was reinstated in 1975-1976, after the Sufco coal mine in Salina canyon was purchased by Coastal States Energy Company in 1973. The coal from the Sufco mine is trucked 78 miles to the Sharp loadout of the Union Pacific Provo Subdivision (Sharp Subdivision after 1998).

February 1976
Construction of the coal loadout at Sharp was started in February 1976, and was completed at a reported cost of $5 million. The initial loading process used just a front-end loader, which was housed in a small building on-site. (Provo Daily Herald, February 29, 1976; The Daily Spectrum, St. George, May 3, 1981)

October 1977
"Coastal States Energy Co. of Houston, Tex., has signed a five-year agreement with Salt River Project to supply up to 530,000 tpy of coal valued at approximately $35 million. The coal will go to the new Coronado Generating Station under construction near St. Johns, Ariz., from the Coastal States' Southern Utah Fuel Co. mine near Salina, Utah. Deliveries are scheduled for 1980. Coastal States Energy also announced a four-year agreement with Kennecott Copper Corp. for 1,550,000 tons of coal from the Utah mine. The coal, worth about $20 million, will be shipped to Kennecott's power facility at Magna, Utah." (Coal Age, October 1977, page 47)

July 1981
"Coastal States Energy Company, subsidiary of Coastal States Gas Corporation, announced signing of a 22-year agreement with the Sierra Pacific Power Company of Reno, Nevada to supply 17.5 million tons of low-sulfur coal to Sierra Pacifiic's Valmy, Nevada electric generating plant. The coal is to come from Coastal State's Southern Utah Fuel Company mine near Salina. Railroad deliveries of coal are scheduled to start in July 1981." (Utah Mineral Industry Activity Review 1978, published by Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, Circular 59, July 1979, page 13)

(Sierra Pacific's Valmy Unit No. 1 went on line in October 1981.)

August 1983
Coastal States Energy Company's coal contract with the Salt River Project's Coronado Generating Station at St. John, Arizona expired on December 31, 1984. Coastal had been furnishing 500,000 tons per year from its Sufco No. 1 mine near Salina, Utah, 600 miles north of St. John. The new contract was awarded to Pittsburg & Midway Mining Company's (P&M) McKinley Mine near Gallup, New Mexico, just 94 miles from St. John. P&M was presently furnishing 1 million tons per year, half of the generating station's requirements. (Coal Age magazine, August 1983, page 35)

1985
Under Coastal States ownership, the Sufco coal mine was the first in Utah to use a longwall machine. (Coal People magazine, June 2003)

December 1996
The Sufco mine was sold to Canyon Fuel Company, a new company owned jointly by Arco Coal (65%) and Itochu of Japan (35%), the result of the merger of Coastal States Energy Company with four coal mining companies in Utah, including Soldier Creek Coal Company; Sage Point Coal Company; Southern Utah Fuel Company; Skyline Coal Company; along with Coastal Development Company, and Utah Fuel Company. (Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining, Permit C0070039; Dugout Canyon Mine)

"Effective December 20, 1996, Canyon Fuel Company, LLC was formed as a joint venture between ARCO Uinta Coal Company (65% ownership) and ITOCHU Coal International Inc. (35% ownership) for the purpose of acquiring certain Utah coal operations and an approximate 9% interest in Los Angeles Export Terminal, Inc. from Coastal Coal, Inc. and The Coastal Corporation." (Arch Coal, Inc., SEC Form 10K, dated March 2, 1999)

As mentioned above, Canyon Fuel was a joint company of Arco Coal and Itochu of Japan. Two years later, in 1998, Atlantic Richfield (Arco) sold its Arco Coal subsidiary to Arch Coal. In 2013 Arch Coal sold all of its coal properties in Utah to the newly created Bowie Resource Partners.

(The link includes the changes under its parent company, Arco Coal from 1996 to 1998, then under Arch Coal from 1998 to 2013)

###