KIEV, Dec. 1 - The government on Wednesday approved a memorandum calling for cooperation with Azerbaijan in arranging imports of 5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually, an energy ministry official said.

KIEV, Dec. 1 - The National Electricity Regulatory Commission has extended a moratorium on a rise in retail tariffs of electricity for mining, metals and chemical companies until January 2010.

KIEV, Dec. 1 – An auction commission for the organization and holding of auctions of access to interstate power transmission lines for electricity exports has approved the schedule for holding auctions in 2010.

MOSCOW, Nov. 30 - The fundamental credit outlook for the Ukrainian banking sector remains negative, reflecting the vulnerable state of the credit fundamentals of domestic banks in the medium term amid the ongoing financial and economic crisis, Moody's Investors Service said in a new Banking System Outlook on Ukraine.

KIEV, Nov. 30 – The mining division of Metinvest Group has developed the functional logistics for exporting iron ore raw materials using Capesize-class 175,000-400,000 Deadweight tonnage (DWT) vessels.

KIEV, Dec. 1 - Regal Petroleum oil and gas company, with assets in Ukraine, has increased natural gas extraction l.5-fold and gas condensate extraction by 20% at the MEX-106 well of the Mekhedivsko-Holotovschynska field, which in September was blocked at a deep level.

KIEV, Dec. 1 - Fitch Ratings expects that some mining and metals companies will be shut down in Ukraine due to their inefficiency, the director of the mining and metals sector at Fitch Ratings, Sergey Grishunin said at a conference entitled "Ukraine in the Conditions of the International Crisis" organized by the agency in Kiev last week.

KIEV, Nov. 28 - Myronivsky Khliboproduct agro-industrial group, a large poultry producer in Ukraine, has had to trim its plans for capital investment due to a fall in opportunities to finance them, Myronivsky Khliboproduct CFO Viktoria Kapelyushna said.

KIEV, Dec. 1 – A cabinet decision to peg the price of natural gas supplied to Ukrainian industrial consumers to the hryvnia exchange rate to the dollar will seriously worsen the condition of chemical companies that use gas as a raw material, according to Oleksiy Holubov, the president of the Union of Chemical Companies of Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 1 ??“ BNP Paribas, a French banking group, signed an agreement to acquire 51% stake in UkrSibbank, Ukraine??™s fifth largest bank, UkrSibbank Vice President Ernest Haliyev said Thursday.