History
CONSOL Energy shed its coal businesses and joint ventures to become pure-play gas producer CNX Resources, then bought in its midstream arm and, in 2025, turned to acquisitions.
2014-2016: Gas growth and the retreat from coal
The cached record opens in 2014, when the company was still called CONSOL Energy and ran both coal and natural gas. In April 2014 it reported record first-quarter gas production, up 23% on the year, with Marcellus Shale output nearly doubled, and it closed a $1.6 billion offering of 5.875% senior notes due 2022.
Borrowing grew costlier as commodity prices slid. In March 2015 it issued senior notes due 2023 at 8.000%. In May 2015 it amended its credit agreement to allow possible spinoffs of its thermal-coal and metallurgical-coal businesses, and to let those coal subsidiaries raise their own debt.
In 2016 the company began selling coal. In February it agreed to sell the Buchanan metallurgical coal mine, the Amonate mining complex and related reserves to Coronado IV LLC for $420 million; the sale closed in April, with $402.8 million paid in cash at closing. In July it agreed to sell its Miller Creek and Fola complexes in West Virginia to Southeastern Land, LLC. It also tidied its gas partnerships: in October it agreed to swap jointly owned Utica Shale properties with partner Noble Energy so each owned its own areas, and the deal closed in December with Noble paying $213 million in cash.
2017-2018: Separation and simplification
On November 28, 2017, the company split in two. The gas business kept the assets and was renamed CNX Resources Corporation (CNX). The coal business became a new CONSOL Energy Inc. (CEIX). Holders of record on November 15 received one CEIX share for every eight CNX shares, about 28.0 million shares in total. Five directors and the coal chief operating officer moved to the new coal company, leaving CNX with a six-person board. The two companies signed agreements on transition services, taxes, employees and name licences, and each is barred from using the other's name for five years. CNX's year-end share count fell from 223.7 million in 2017 to 203.6 million in 2018, though the beats do not explain the fall.
With the coal assets gone, CNX cut its credit facility from $2.5 billion to $2.0 billion. It then bought out Noble Energy's 50% of the CONE Gathering midstream venture for $305 million in cash, completed in January 2018. In June 2018 it agreed to sell its Ohio Utica joint-venture assets, held with Hess Corporation, to Ascent Resources for about $400 million net cash, judging the wet-gas area less attractive than its core opportunities. The sale closed in August.
2019-2020: Pandemic year and the midstream buy-in
In March 2019 CNX completed a $500 million offering of 7.25% senior notes due 2027, a materially higher coupon than its 2014 borrowing. In January 2020 CNX Midstream Partners removed its incentive distribution rights and turned its general partner's 2% stake into a non-economic interest. In return CNX received 26 million common units, 3 million new Class B units and $135 million in cash payable through 2022.
When COVID-19 hit commodity markets in April 2020, lenders cut the borrowing base from $2.3 billion to $1.9 billion and capped the cash CNX could hold. That month CNX raised $345 million of 2.25% convertible senior notes due May 2026, including a $45 million option. The notes convert at about $12.84 a share, and CNX paid about $35.7 million for capped calls, contracts meant to limit dilution up to $18.19. It was a new type of funding for a company that had relied on plain senior notes.
In July 2020 CNX agreed to buy the public units of CNX Midstream Partners at 0.88 CNX shares per unit, and the deal closed on September 28. This ended the partnership structure that began as the CONSOL and Noble Energy midstream venture. Shares on issue rose from 186.6 million at the end of 2019 to 220.4 million at the end of 2020, a period that includes this share-based buy-in.
2021-2025: Refinancing, then a new acquisition
The record for 2021 to 2024 is quiet in the major beats, apart from the company's habit of regularly refinancing its notes and credit facility. Year-end share counts fell from 220.4 million in 2020 to 142.6 million in 2025, though the beats do not explain the decline.
In January 2025 CNX disclosed its first acquisition move since the midstream buy-in: a pending purchase of Apex Energy (PA), LLC and two related Apex entities. It closed a $200 million add-on offering of its 7.250% notes due 2032 at 100.5% of par, with proceeds to help fund the deal and pay down revolver borrowings. The closing of the acquisition has not been confirmed in the record.
On December 15, 2025, CNX agreed with a small group of holders to exchange about $122.1 million of the 2.25% convertible notes for 9,509,188 new shares and about $0.8 million in cash, completed around December 17. As of that date, CNX was a pure-play Appalachian natural gas producer and midstream company, with part of its 2026 convertible notes still outstanding and the Apex closing unconfirmed.
Written from the 25 story beats below (2014 to 16 Dec 2025), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.