The present invention relates to an energy cable comprising a cable core comprising an electric conductor and a crosslinked electrically insulating layer, wherein the cable core further comprises a microporous material having a bimodal pore volume distribution with a first peak of the distribution having a maximum at a pore diameter value within the range 5.5-6.5 Å and a second peak of the distribution having a maximum at a pore diameter value within the range 7.5-8.5 Å, the maximum values of the first and the second peak corresponding to an incremental pore volume of at least 4×10−3 cm3/g. The present invention also relates to a method for extracting methane crosslinking by-products from a crosslinked electrically insulating layer of an energy cable.