About

The Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker (GPGPT) provides data on oil and gas plants worldwide. The GOGPT includes information on announced, pre-construction, construction, operating, shelved, cancelled, mothballed, and retired oil and gas plants. The map and underlying data receive a complete global update bi-annually, in February and August. For further detail, each gas plant is linked to a wiki page on on GEM.wiki.

GGPT’s August 2023 release is used for this map, as well as the accompanying files for project-level data and summary tables.

FAQs

Maps

Q: How do I view a different country?

If the country is adjacent to your current location, you can move the cursor over the country and click (note, the country click feature is not currently available on mobile devices). Alternatively, select Main Menu (upper right).

Q: What do the colored dots mean?

A: The colors indicate the status category:

• Announced: Projects that have been publicly reported but have not yet moved actively forward by applying for permits or seeking land, material, or financing.
• Pre-construction: Projects that are actively moving forward in seeking governmental approvals, land rights, or financing.
• Construction: Equipment installation has begun (not just clearing/roads).
• Shelved: Two years have passed with no action on a project after the project proposal.
• Cancelled: A cancellation announcement has been made, or no progress has been observed for at least four years.
• Operating: The plant has been formally commissioned.
• Mothballed: The plant is not in use (if no operation for more than 1 year) but not dismantled.
• Retired: The plant has been dismantled; this term is also used if the plant has been destroyed by war.

Q: Can I change the status categories that the map is showing?

A: Yes, go to the legend (upper right corner of the map) and click in the box next to a color.

Q: What do the numbers in the circles mean?

A: The numbers tell the number of generating units at each location. To find information on each unit, click on the number, then select one of the colored dots.

Q: I've zoomed in, but I don't see a power plant. Why?

If a plant is still in the proposed phase, there may be no sign of activity. In other cases, only approximate location information could be found by researchers. Finally, in some geographies satellite photos are only updated every few years, so recent activity is not shown.

Q: How do I find out if a location is exact or approximate?

Locations tend to be known with greater accuracy as plants move from early stages toward construction. To find out the coordinates of a location and whether a location is exact or approximate, click on the location dot, select the wiki page, and look under "Project Details."

Table

Q: How can I filter a table so that only plants in a particular category, such as Construction, are listed?

A: Type Construction into the Search line. Note: On iPad, do not click "Go" after typing a search term. Instead, simply hide the keyboard.

Coverage

Q: Does the tracker show all the operating plants in each country?

A: The objective of the tracker is to provide information on oil and gas-fired power plants in the operational or developmental phases since 2020. Plants that were cancelled or retired before 2020 are not included.

Q: What about small plants?

A: The tracker covers units totaling 50 MW or more (20 MW in the EU) at a given location. For combined cycle units, this threshold applies to the entire combined cycle set and not to individual components.

Q: How do you define capacity?

Capacity is measured in gross megawatts, prior to subtracting capacity used for plant operations.

Q: What about plants that are switching from coal to gas?

A: The tracker includes coal plants that have announced or are in the process of a switch from coal to gas as a fuel source. These coal-to-gas conversions are added as “announced”, “pre-construction” or “construction” into the GOGPT until the conversion is completed, when the status is switched to “operating”.

Q: Can you explain the difference between "units" and "plants?"

A: The tracker provides separate data on each of the multiple facilities that typically exist at a particular location. Each of these facilities is referred to as a "unit." The entire collection of units at a given location is referred to as a "plant."

Improving the Tracker

Q: What if I find an error or a missing project?

A: Please send information on errors or omissions to Jenny Martos (jenny.martos AT globalenergymonitor.org).

Credits

Q: Who built this tool?

A: The tracker was designed and produced by Global Energy Monitor, a network of researchers seeking to develop collaborative informational resources on fossil fuel impacts and alternatives. To the extent possible, the information in the tracker has been verified by activists and researchers familiar with particular countries.

Q: How do I cite the data?

A: Please cite the data as Global Energy Monitor, Global Gas Plant Tracker, with the date you accessed the data.