Shoreline view of Aktau city, nestled along the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan. Photography: elleonzebon via Adobe Stock.
Asia
Oil & Gas

Investing in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Using western technology to arrest production decline

Condor Energies (“Con­dor”) is a Canadian, Cal­gary-based, publicly listed (Toronto Stock Exchange) energy transition company focused on Central Asia. The company has distin­guished itself by building significant operations in KazakhstanKazakhstan and Uzbek­istan. Condor has over eighteen years of experience operating in Central Asia.

Central Asia includes the re­source-rich nations of Kazakhstan, Uz­bekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and the region has some of the largest oil and gas fields in the world. In Kazakhstan, this includes giant oil and gas fields such as Tengiz, Kasha­gan, and Karachaganak. These fields all have Western oil majors as partners, including Chevron, Eni, Shell, TotalEn­ergies and ExxonMobil. In Uzbekistan, this includes the giant Gazli gas-conden­sate field. Turkmenistan holds the giant Yolotan gas field. Central Asia lies in an optimum location with energy-hungry markets such as Europe to the west and China, India and Pakistan to the east.

In 1991, both Kazakhstan and Uz­bekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan has a pop­ulation of 20 million and is producing oil at a rate of 1.8 million barrels per day. In 2024, Kazakhstan produced 60 billion cubic meters of gas. Uzbeki­stan, with a population of 36 million, in 2024 produced 50 billion cubic meters of gas and minimal volumes of oil. Uz­bekistan is planning to produce more gas but will keep most of it at home due to increasing domestic consumption including power generation, industrial uses and household heating.

LNG in Kazakhstan

Condor will be the first company to deliver Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in Kazakhstan. In 2024, the company received two natural gas allocations to be used as feed gas for the company’s modular LNG production facilities. The company is planning to construct Kazakhstan’s first LNG facilities and produce, distribute, and sell LNG to offset industrial diesel usage in the country. LNG applications include rail locomotives, long-haul truck fleets, marine vessels, mining equip­ment, and municipal bus fleets. The total LNG fuel produced will have an energy-equivalent volume of over one million liters of diesel daily, while re­ducing CO2 emissions equivalent to removing more than 38,000 cars from the road annually. These applications have all successfully used LNG fuel in other countries.

Construction of this facility is on­going, and fabrication works are ex­pected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025, with LNG produc­tion expected in the first half of 2026.

Critical minerals licenses in Kazakhstan

In 2023, Kazakhstan awarded Condor with its first critical minerals license covering 37,000 hectares. In February 2025, a second contiguous license cov­ering 6,800 hectares was awarded to Condor. The Company holds a 100 % working interest in both licenses.

These licenses are in a heavily faulted geothermally active region, allowing migration of mineralized brines into Carboniferous-age subsurface reser­voirs. The licenses offer a significant opportunity to recover lithium, cesi­um, manganese, rubidium and stron­tium, minerals of critical importance in the energy transition.

Condor in Uzbekistan

In January 2024, Condor signed a production enhancement services con­tract with JSC Uzbekneftegaz to in­crease the production, ultimate recov­ery and overall system efficiency from an integrated cluster of eight conven­tional natural gas-condensate fields in Uzbekistan. Giant-size gas fields sur­round Condor’s operations, including the Gazli field with gas reserves of 190 Bcm (23 TCF). Condor was the first Western strategic operating partner of the national holding company.

Prior to Condor’s participation in the Uz field, production was averaging 10,000 boepd (barrels of oil equivalent per day) from the eight fields with ap­proximately 80 active producing wells and 40 shut-in wells. Production is from Upper Jurassic shelf carbonates. The Uz reservoirs are larger analogues of Western Canada’s prolific Trias­sic-age Charlie Lake and Mississip­pian-age Midale Formation platform carbonates. Condor’s strategy is to apply proven Western Canadian tech­nology to abundant workover oppor­tunities in order to grow production.

In June 2024, the company com­menced with a multi-well workover campaign for the eight fields, includ­ing installing proven artificial lift equipment, perforating newly identi­fied pay intervals, and installing new production tubing. Currently, two workover rigs are being utilized. Pro­duction averaged 11,175 boepd in the first quarter of 2025, resulting in Ca­nadian $22.2 million sales (Q1 2025). A very successful recent workover in­creased overall production to 12,300 boepd in mid-March. At least six addi­tional well candidates have been iden­tified with similar geological charac­teristics using a combination of legacy data and reprocessed 3D seismic data.

On March 20, 2025, Condor announced its 2024 Year-end Re­sults. Don Streu, President and CEO commented “For Condor 2024 was a transformational year. Our strat­egy to implement multiple proven Western technologies in Uzbekistan on eight existing gas fields has not only mitigated a 20 % annual natural decline but yielded material produc­tion gains from the ongoing worko­ver program and facilities upgrades. As a result, production volumes and revenues continue to increase quar­ter-on-quarter, which is generating positive netbacks. Results from our recently reprocessed 3D seismic data is providing higher resolutions that should assist with more accurate­ly characterizing the reservoirs and identifying new targets in prepa­ration for a 2025 infill vertical and horizontal drilling program.”

More recently, using advanced cased-hole logging tools and the 3D seismic data, Condor identified a Cre­taceous channel sand which flowed at 1,300 boepd on test. The company will further evaluate these channel sands as part of its 2025 infill drilling cam­paign. Condor Energies is expected to continue to grow in Central Asia due to its effective working relationships with the governments and national oil companies of Kazakhstan and Uzbeki­stan and application of proven and new technologies to produce LNG and hy­drocarbons, all at the doorstep of nu­merous energy-hungry markets.

Previous article
A helium reservoir in fractured basement
Next article
The “nugget effect” in geothermal exploration

Related Articles