In the first quarter of this year, the total output of coalbed methane (CBM) in North China's Shanxi province reached 30.7 billion cubic meters, an increase of 11.8 percent year-on-year and accounting for nearly 80.8 percent of the national output during the same period.

CBM, which produces almost no waste gas when burned, is considered a clean energy source and a strategic resource being developed and utilized by the world.

Data shows that the predicted CBM resources at depths of less than 2,000 meters in Shanxi are nearly 8.31 trillion cu m, accounting for nearly one-third of the national total.

According to an official of the Shanxi Provincial Energy Administration, the province's CBM production in 2023 grew 249 percent compared to that in 2015, and six 1-billion-cubic-meter-level gas fields have been established. Furthermore, the country's first demonstration area for the development of CBM from medium and low-rank coal was constructed in Baode county, making it one of the most mature regions for CBM development in the country.