Iskakov said steps taken by TengizChevrOil to reprocess the sulfur extracted from Tengiz were insufficient and that the company contaminates the Caspian Sea environment.
Sulfur is a by-product of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas found with crude oil pumped from Tengiz.
TengizChevrOil's partners include Chevron and ExxonMobil of the United States, the LUKArco U.S.-Russian joint venture, and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz national oil company.
Chevron has a 50-percent stake in the joint venture. ExxonMobil has a 25 percent stake.
(Kazakhstan Today, Interfax-Kazakhstan)
An Increasingly Thirsty World
An Iraqi boy drinks from a waste-water reservoir near Baghdad (epa file photo)
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. Disputes about access to water are increasingly coming to the center of global attention, especially in China, India, and Central Asia. Writing about the 1967 Six Day War in his 2001 memoirs, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that "while border disputes between Syria and ourselves were of great significance, the matter of water diversion was a stark issue of life and death." (more)
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THE COMPLETE STORY: Click on the icon to view a dedicated webpage bringing together all of RFE/RL's coverage of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
