Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) And first we have line of Kuni Chen with Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
J. Brett Harvey
Hello?
Unidentified Analyst
This is actually Chris Brown, filling in for Kuni Chen, good morning.
J. Brett Harvey
Hi Chris.
Unidentified Analyst
On the gas side, will you continue to layer in hedges at about 22 Bcf per quarter, did you slow back your hedging activity at these low gas prices?
J. Brett Harvey
I think it right now we have hedging strategy that's layers in. And as we see it move up about $0.50 from, we'll lay in. But it if starts to drop of course we won't hedge on the drop. So we're -- we tend to hedge on the spike so we'll take advantage of that as we see that happen.
William Lyons
And also Chris, we'd have the advantage of having both coal and gas. So we look at the total risk portfolio and if one side is doing better than other that influences how we do our hedging with the--again we think we're in a excellent position on our hedging were very pleased to have a well EPS hedged it almost $8 an Mcf for next year.
Unidentified Analyst
Then in your guidance you did about 10 million tons to committed price tonnage for 2010. Incremental tons they carry pretty high pricing the 60 plus range, can you give us some color there or is that more of a mix issue with perhaps more met coal being booked for the year?
J. Brett Harvey
Well, I think not as mostly steel coal I think we did a better--we got about 1.3 million tons of mix that is priced as well as we, I think we are opened about 3.3 million tons of met for next years as well. So the met isn't a big influence. But I think the steam price is going to hold. If you look at our average price, I would predict that our average price for next year is going to be very similar to the average price for 2010. And having said that, that's why I call it a bridge. I would expect 2011 to rise off of that number.
Unidentified Analyst
And then, just finally a question on the cost side. Obviously, there's the cost absorption issue at these lower lines, do you expect that to get worse in the second half or do costs basically stay at some more levels that we've seen this quarter?
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