BUDAPEST, March 28 - Ukraine is counting on the technical capability for the reverse flow of gas through Hungary increasing to five billion cubic meters (bcm) a year in one or two months, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky said.

KIEV, March 29 - Russian gas giant OJSC Gazprom received 285.715 billion rubles, or $9.19 billion at the average annual exchange rate, from Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrayiny as payment for natural gas in 2012, which was 16.4% less, or 34.19 billion rubles less, than in 2011.

KIEV, March 29 – Supplies of natural gas to Ukraine via Poland under a contract signed between national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrayiny and Germany's RWE from April 1 will grow to five million cubic meters a day, up from March 17, when they stood at two million cubic meters a day.

KIEV, March 29 – Pechersky District Court in Kiev is to hear criminal cases against the former head of the State Customs Service, Anatoliy Makarenko, and a former deputy chief of Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ihor Didenko.

KIEV, March 30 – The Odessa oil refinery is unlikely to be launched until the scheme for delivering oil supplies to the refinery through pipelines is revised, according to Vagit Alekperov, president of Russia's Lukoil.

KIEV, March 30 – Ukraine wants to develop effective cooperation with Brunei in the energy and investment sectors, said Vladyslav Kaskiv, head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects.

KIEV, March 31 – The volume of imports of some petroleum products to Ukraine from 2007 to 2010 was enough to cause damage to national producers and was threatening to the energy security of the country.

KIEV, March 31 – Sumykhimprom, one of the leading companies in the Ukrainian chemical sector, could temporarily suspend production of phosphatic fertilizers due to political instability in some African states, a top manager of the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, March 31 – The International Monetary Fund has agreed to the need for a more gradual increase in natural gas prices for households and heat suppliers, in particular, increasing them in April by 20% instead of the previously planned 50%, IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Max Alier said.

VIENNA, March 30 – Ukraine and Armenia could become participants in the International Uranium Enrichment Center (IUEC) in Angarsk in 2010, said IUEC Director General Aleksey Lebedev.