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Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the only Middle Eastern countries to feature in the world’s top 10 nations for gas-fired power capacity under development in the second half of 2025, according to a report by open-access energy data provider Global Energy Monitor (GEM)..
The report covered projects spanning announced, pre-construction and construction phases.
Iraq ranked fourth globally with 49.8 gigawatts (GW) of gas-fired capacity in development as the government ramps up efforts to tackle chronic power shortages faced by the OPEC member.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed S. Al-Sudani said this week that the government has completed procedures to establish new power plants with a total capacity of 57.5 GW.
Saudi Arabia ranked sixth globally with about 31 GW, driven by the Kingdom’s strategy to replace oil-fired generation with gas. Kuwait ranked eighth, with roughly 21GW of gas-fired capacity under development as the country focuses on upgrading its power fleet to meet rising peak demand.
Together, the three countries accounted for more than 100 GW of planned gas capacity.
Globally, the U.S. had the most gas-fired power capacity in development at 252 GW in the second half of 2025, representing nearly one-quarter of the world’s total, followed by China at 153GW.
GEM noted that more than one-third of the U.S. capacity in development is slated to directly power data centres on-site. While the U.S. leads for total capacity in development, China narrowly leads in capacity under construction (30.9 GW).
China installed its most ever gas power capacity in a single year, a record 22.4 GW in 2025, or more than a third of the world’s 60.4 GW of newly commissioned capacity last year.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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