ASTANA, March 7 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is seeking 134.2 billion tenge ($737 million) from a consortium developing the nation's huge Kashagan oilfield as compensation for ecological damage at the deposit since last autumn, the environment protection ministry said on Friday.
Production at Kashagan, the world's biggest oil discovery in 35 years, began in September but was stopped just weeks later after gas leaks were detected in its pipelines.
As a result, the remaining sour gas was burnt in flares at Kashagan's processing plants and polluted the atmosphere, the Environment Protection and Water Resources Ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Pullin)
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