Several emissions of hydrogen sulphide from the Karachaganak field preceded mass poisoning of children in a nearby western Kazakhstan village, Prosecutor of the Oblast Serik Karamanov said...The mass fainting of children occurred on November 28 in Berezovka village in West Kazakhstan Oblast. The villagers unanimously pointed in the direction of Karachaganak, a massive oil and gas condensate field located just a few kilometers away from Berezovka. Karachaganak accounts for 45% of total gas production in Kazakhstan and about 16% of all liquid production. The field is managed by Karachaganak Petroleum Operating, a joint venture of British BG Group…Italian…American Chevron…Russia’s Lukoil…and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas...Half of the villagers suffer from various respiratory diseases, chronic in most cases..Right after the fainting incident, however, they were assured by Steve Wright, HSEQ Controller at Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V., that the field had special ecological control posts to monitor the situation constantly. He said that there was a sanitary protection zone in place in accordance with the standards and that the measurements of special ecological control posts set all around the field were “very precise”…After that, the villagers gathered signatures and submitted an open letter to the President of Kazakhstan, asking for a relocation of the village away from the oilfield, fearing for the lives of their children.