BEIJING — China saw a steady increase in its natural gas output in the first 10 months of the year, official data showed.

The country's natural gas output totaled 168.4 billion cubic meters during the January-October period, up 9.4 percent from a year ago and 19.2 percent from the 2019 level, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In October alone, China reported 16.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas production, edging up 0.5 percent year-on-year.

Natural gas imports logged a rapid increase of 24.5 percent in October, 0.9 percentage points higher than in September.

During the first 10 months, China imported a total of 99.07 million metric tons of natural gas, jumping 22.3 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.