KHARKIV, July 11 – A lawmaker of the Kharkiv Regional Council, Ivan Varchenko, (the Batkivschyna faction) has filed a claim in the district administrative court in Kharkiv demanding to declare illegal the decision of the regional council on the agreement of a draft production sharing agreement between Ukraine and Shell, Nadra Yuzivska for the development of the Yuzivska field jointly with Shell and cancel the decision.

IVANO-FRANKIVSK, July 9 – It is planned to raise EUR 1 billion to build alternative energy facilities in Ukraine, Yaroslav Adamenko, the head of the ecology department at Ivano-Frankivsk National technical University of Oil and Gas, said at a meeting of the parliamentary assembly of Ukraine and Poland in Yaremche (Ivano-Frankivsk region).

KIEV, July 10 – Ukrainian companies who own by-product coke plants in Ukraine will buy all of the coal extracted by state-run coalmines by the end of the current year – over 1.5 million tons, easing the problem of selling coking coal, the State Property Agency announced.

KIEV, July 10 – The Sea Launch international consortium is preparing to launch a Zenit-3SL rocket with the U.S. Intelsat 21 satellite in mid-August.

KIEV, July 10 – The cooperation of Ukraine and Russia is becoming wider and more specific, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

The premier stressed that the agenda of relations of the two countries includes a wide range of issues apart from for the gas supplies problem, reads a posting on the Web site of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Tuesday.

KIEV, July 10 – Russia's OJSC Lukoil has decided to close the Karpatnaftokhim LLC petrochemicals enterprise (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), where recently PVC production was launched, in August and September 2012, the director general of the limited liability company, Volodymyr Shulindin, said after a meeting with Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov.

KIEV, July 11 – The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a feasibility study for the construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant.

Te construction of the facility will be divided into two stages: in 2012-2015 and 2016-2020. The plant will be able to annually produce 800 fuel assemblies.

KIEV, July 8 – Parliament has passed bill No. 7351 to regulate relations between lenders and consumers of financial services.

The new legislation foresees, among other things, a ban on consumer loans being made in foreign currency.

KIEV, July 8 – The State Customs Service has said that the service assesses national budget's losses from duty-free imports of fuel by Livela company (Poltava region) in 2010 at UAH 2.893 billion, the head of the department for administration of customs payments at the State Customs Service, Vitaliy Zvarych, said at a meeting of the parliamentary commission for investigation into consequences of Livela's operation on the fuel market.

KIEV, July 8 - Electric power output in Ukraine's unified energy system increased 3.6% (by 3.336 billion kilowatt hours) year-on-year in the first half of 2011, to 96.648 billion kilowatt hours, a source at the country's Energy and Coal Industry Ministry said.