TAIYUAN, April 24 -- China's coal-rich Shanxi Province extracted 3.07 billion cubic meters of coalbed methane in the first three months of 2024, up 11.8 percent year on year, accounting for about 80.8 percent of the country's total, according to the provincial energy bureau.

Shanxi has achieved marked progress in expanding the reserves and output of coalbed methane, said Kang Yi, an official of the energy bureau, adding that the province's annual output of coalbed methane in 2023 skyrocketed by 249 percent compared with that in 2015.

Utilizing coalbed methane, a byproduct of coal, can help reduce risks in mining, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and ease gas shortages.

Shanxi is one of several Chinese regions with abundant coalbed methane resources. It houses about a third of China's estimated reserves of coalbed methane.