Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
And first from the line of Michael Dudas with Jeffries & Co.
Michael Dudas - Jeffries & Co
Good morning, gentlemen.
Greg Boyce
Good morning, Michael.
Michael Dudas - Jeffries & Co
My first question is related to your expectations in Illinois basin. Can you remind us where you stand on new investment in the region and how much of ability you have to take advantage of a relatively strong Illinois basin market versus some of other regions in the US?
Greg Boyce
Sure, Michael. As we have said before, we have got a number of advanced projects in the Illinois basin that are going through the permitting stage, as well as several more behind that that are in the final engineering stages.
As we have always said, we plan on taking advantage of the Illinois basin at that point in time and bring on new properties in Illinois basis at the point of time that we secure base load contracts for those operations, which we are in the process of discussing with several groups.
So at the end of the day given our large reserve base in the Illinois basin, I think we would expect to see additional volume coming from the Illinois basin over the course of the next several years.
Michael Dudas - Jeffries & Co
My second question of follow-up is relative to your coal trading sales business. Can you explain how that has been helpful relative to navigating the market and, can we see a similar level of contribution given that you have expanded the platform around the world? And are you going to plan to move a little bit more into the electricity, trading or other areas around, what you do in coal?
Rick Navarre
This is Rick, Mike. There are a number of questions here. Let me start at the beginning and say, clearly the trading business has been a strong asset for the company. And as we have discussed a number of times, it provides us the insight and visibility into the markets that helps us make decisions from a capital investment perspective, from an M&A perspective and just from an overall market perspective in general. And I think as I look forward, we would see that continuing to expand. So, I don't see anything lessening in that regard as we continue to expand our international platform, as it's been a great asset.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
