Kazakhstan on Tuesday told Italy’s Eni that delays and cost inflation at the huge Kashagan oil development would stymie the Central Asian republic’s econ­omic growth.

Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Eni, the operator of the consortium developing Kashagan, met Karim Massimov, the Kazakh prime minister, and Sauat Mynbaev, the energy minister, in Astana to discuss the ­government’s demand for improved contract terms. The Kazakh government is seeking compensation for a two-year delay to production and a doubling of costs of the first phase of the Kashagan project.