Total U.S. coal production for the week ended Sept. 29 rose 3.7% year over year to 15.2 million tons from 14.6 million tons, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

For the 52 weeks ended Sept. 29, production was 756.3 million tons, representing a year-over-year decrease of 4.6%, while year-to-date coal output fell 2.8% year over year to about 562.4 million tons.

The western region's coal production for the week reached 8.5 million tons, slipping less than 1% from the prior year's 8.6 million tons. Data for the Western region covers Powder River Basin mines.

Coal production from Appalachian mines totaled 3.9 million tons, climbing 13.7% from the year-ago week's 3.5 million tons.

The interior region's production grew 4.7% to 2.7 million tons, compared to 2.6 million tons a year ago. Interior region data covers mines in the Illinois Basin.

The EIA's production data is derived from rail carload estimates.