Global Energy Monitor

Architecture

The Europe Gas Tracker uses a two-level system for organizing information. Key data is maintained in a database, at the level of individual pipelines or LNG terminals, at the level of generating units for oil and gas-fired power plants, and at the level of fields for gas extraction sites. Each project has a corresponding wiki page on GEM.wiki, in which the data is presented, together with links to sources, additional narrative information, and a map of the project site.

Research Process

Gas Pipelines and LNG Terminals

Data for methane and hydrogen gas pipelines and LNG terminals is drawn from GEM’s Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker (GGIT). For more details, see the GGIT methodology.

Oil and Gas Power Plants

For oil- and gas-fired power plants, data was drawn from country-level government data sets whenever available, for example Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur (BNA, or Federal Network Agency). Next, the research draws on data from companies where available, for example Elia, Belgium’s electricity system operator. The research draws on additional sources as needed, including news articles, to complete the data set. For each generating unit, data sources are listed in each power plant’s wiki page. Data for oil and gas power plants is drawn from GEM’s Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker (GOGPT). For more details, see the GOGPT methodology.

Gas Extraction Sites

For gas extraction sites, data was drawn from country-level government data sets whenever available, for example the Danish Energy Agency. Each field’s wiki page lists data sources used. For gas extraction sites, data is drawn from GEM’s Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker (GOGET). For more details, see the GOGET methodology.

Project Status

A status is assigned to each project unit based on the categorization below:

  • Operating: Units that have been formally commissioned or have entered commercial operation.
  • Mothballed: Units that have been deactivated or put into an inactive state but not retired.
  • Retired: Units that have been permanently decommissioned or converted to another fuel.
  • Construction: Site preparation and other development and construction activities are underway.
  • Proposed: Units that have been announced, and that may have moved farther along in development (e.g., have received permits).
  • Shelved: In the absence of an announcement that the owner is putting its plans on hold, a unit is considered “shelved” if there are no reports of activity over a period of two years.
  • Cancelled: In some cases a sponsor announces that it has cancelled a project. More often a project fails to advance and then quietly disappears from company documents. A project that was previously in an active category is moved to “Cancelled” if it disappears from company documents, even if no announcement is made. In the absence of a cancellation announcement, a project is considered cancelled if there are no reports of activity over a period of four years.

Definition of a Project Unit

For each category of infrastructure, the typical unit is described below:

  • LNG terminals: The unit is typically a whole LNG terminal, but sometimes an LNG terminal has different phases in which the capacity is expanded over time by adding more trains (for export terminals) or with more regasification capacity (for import terminals).
  • Gas pipelines: The unit is typically a particular length of pipeline, added (or planned to be added) by a particular company at a particular time. However, some existing pipelines are listed as whole networks (e.g., the United Kingdom’s National Transmission System).
  • Oil and Gas power plants: The unit is a generator within each plant. For combined cycle sets (with one or more gas turbines working together with one or more steam turbines), the 20 MW threshold is applied to the whole combined cycle set. For internal combustion units, or those units that have multiple identically sized engines, the threshold applies to the total capacity of the set of engines.
  • Gas extraction sites: The unit is an individual gas field, as defined by the sources consulted (e.g., a government agency such as the Danish Energy Agency).

Countries

The Europe Gas Tracker includes data from all EU and non-EU countries within GEM’s standard definition of Europe (based on the United Nations Populations Divisions), with the exception of Russia, and the Tracker includes data from as a few ex-European countries within the regional gas network: Cyprus, Israel, and Türkiye.

The full list of countries in the Tracker is as follows: Åland Islands, Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Türkiye, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Europe Gas Tracker Release Notes

March 2024

  • This version includes a January 2024 update to the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker for Europe’s LNG terminals and hydrogen pipelines, and a February 2024 global update for the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker.
  • This data underlies the analysis in the 2024 Europe Gas Tracker 2024 report.

December 2023

  • This version includes the October 2023 and December 2023 updates for LNG terminals and gas pipelines, respectively, in the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker.

October 2023

  • This version includes the August 2023 update to the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker, now tracking oil-fired power plants in addition to gas-fired power plants.

March 2023 v2

  • Türkiye has been added to the list of countries in the Europe Gas Tracker.

March 2023

  • This version includes an interim March 2023 update for European LNG terminals, with the last global LNG data update completed in July 2022.
  • This data underlies the analysis in the Europe Gas Tracker 2023 report.