TAIYUAN -- North China's Shanxi province has discovered a large gas field with an estimated reserve of 545.6 billion cubic meters.

Shanxi is a major coal producer and has the country's second-largest known coal reserve. It also has estimated coal-bed gas and shale gas reserves of 12.7 trillion cubic meters.

Authorities discovered a large coal field in the area bordering Yushe, Zuoquan and Wuxiang counties in 2006. Further exploration found it contained high levels of gas.

Since exploration started in 2015, the field has been estimated to contain 241.5 billion cubic meters of coal-bed gas and 304.1 billion cubic meters of shale gas, said Zhou Jipeng, deputy director of the provincial land and resources department.

Shanxi is speeding up gas exploration while reducing coal output as China seeks to power its economy with cleaner energy to reduce pollution.