Thousands of tonnes of oil spilled out of a section of a main export pipeline in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the emergency services said on Thursday.
"Around 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes of oil was spilled," the government's Emergencies Agency said in a statement.
The pipeline, operated by state-owned KazTransOil, runs from Uzen to Atyrau in western Kazakhstan and on to Samara in Russia.
Teams of oil workers with special equipment were welding together joins in the pipeline and clearing up the site of the spill, the agency said.
The oil spill happened between Sai-Utes and Beineu, before the pipeline reaches Atyrau, one of the country's principal oil hubs. A nearby section of the pipeline burst in February due to corrosion, spilling 2,300 tonnes of crude oil.