Condor Energies Hits Record 18,582 boe/d as Uzbekistan’s Gas Fields Run Low

Few countries show the strain inside today’s natural gas market as clearly as Uzbekistan. The Central Asian nation built much of its economy on gas, and for years it produced far more than it needed. Those fields are now old. Output stayed above 50 billion cubic meters a year from 2010 to 2022, peaking near 66 billion in 2010, and officials have said roughly 85% of the country’s gas fields are already depleted. 

The slide has picked up speed. Production in the first half of 2026 fell to 18.3 billion cubic meters, an 18% drop from the same stretch of 2025, a year in which the country produced about 42 billion cubic meters in total. Uzbekistan has been a net importer of gas since 2023. In the first quarter of this year alone it spent $360.5 million on imports, more than double the figure from a year earlier. 

Much of that replacement gas comes from Russia. A Soviet era pipeline that once carried Central Asian gas north now runs in reverse. In April, the two countries’ prime ministers agreed to raise Russian oil and gas deliveries further. Relying so heavily on one neighbor for a basic fuel carries risks of its own. 

Gas does almost everything here. It heats homes, fuels power plants and feeds industry. Domestic prices are among the lowest in the world, and the state budget covers the gap so they can stay below the cost of production. Cheap gas keeps demand high, while the same low prices have long discouraged the spending needed to find new supply.

The government has lowered its sights. A strategy approved in 2023 aimed for 62 billion cubic meters of annual output by 2030. The updated version cuts that goal to 48.5 billion and expects production to slip to 40.2 billion cubic meters this year before recovering. Tashkent is now courting foreign capital. Earlier this year BP (NYSE: BP) took a 40% stake in six exploration blocks in the North Ustyurt region. It joined state companies Uzbekneftegaz and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR. 

Against that backdrop, a small Canadian producer is moving the other way. Condor Energies Inc. (TSX: CDR) reported today that its Uzbek fields averaged a record 18,582 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) over the past nine days. Third quarter production averaged 16,693 boe/d. That was made up of 97.4 million standard cubic feet of gas per day plus 454 barrels per day of condensate, a light liquid that comes up with the gas. The total is 20% above the second quarter and 71% above the third quarter of 2025. 

Those figures cover the whole project, not just Condor’s piece. The company works eight gas and condensate fields under a production enhancement contract in which it owns 51%. That puts its net share of the nine-day record at roughly 9,480 boe/d. Older wells also lose about 20% of their output each year, so new wells must cover that loss before growth shows up. 

Drilling drives the gains. Condor has drilled 11 wells in 2026, mostly horizontal wells on its Kumli license, and plans two to four more by year end. A new Andakli well found commercial gas outside the structural traps the industry usually targets, opening more ground for 2027. The company has also started what it calls Uzbekistan’s first multilateral well, which reaches two reservoirs from one surface hole. 

In October, Condor closed a financing of $51.5 million (CAD $72 million) for field compression in Uzbekistan and small LNG plants in Kazakhstan, where it is also pursuing critical minerals from brines. The compression equipment should be running in the second quarter of 2027. With a market value of about $245.5 million (CAD $343 million), Condor remains small next to the volumes it handles. 

The risks are real. The state sets gas prices, currency swings can eat into returns, and regional politics can shift quickly. Still, a country short on gas has every reason to welcome operators that can lift output from aging fields. The next round of wells will show whether this pace can last.