MINSK, Nov. 22 – The trial pumping of oil in the direct mode through the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline is proceeding very slowly for technical reasons, and the process may take about a week, the Belarus Oil Company told Interfax-West.

KIEV, Nov. 23 – Kiev-based Concorde Group Ltd. plans to start building Kazantip wind power plant (Crimea) with a generating capacity of 100 MW in March-April 2011, deputy director Andriy Konechenkov told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Nov. 23 – The new procedure for conducting currency exchange transactions that took effect on Nov. 20 could lead to the revival of a shadow currency market, according to bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Nov. 23 – Ukrainians who have failed to pay back bank loans on time may find they are unable to leave their native land under temporary restrictions that took effect over the weekend.

MOSCOW, Nov. 20 – Russia and Ukraine will sign by the end of 2009 a protocol to the agreement on the regulation of the supply of some types of Ukrainian pipe products to Russia that will prolong the agreement through 2010, reads a protocol signed following a meeting of the economic cooperation committee of the Ukrainian-Russian intergovernmental commission.

YALTA, Nov. 20 – Russia and Ukraine have drawn up documents on cooperation in the nuclear sector, according to minutes of the fifth meeting of the committee for economic cooperation of the Russian-Ukraine interstate commission.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says it is "deeply concerned about the unauthorized diversion of a high voltage power transmission line route in Ukraine’s Odessa region in contravention of an agreement with the EBRD based under which the bank agreed to participate in the financing of this project."

KIEV, Nov. 23 – Seventy-seven percent of insurers expect their business performance to improve between now and 2012, 18% are confident they will achieve impressive results, while only 4% said that the profitability of their business would fall, according to a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of KPMG International.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – Austria's Raiffeisen Investments is ready to be an advisor in attracting investment into a European-gauge railway line project, which foresees the construction of a European-standard 75-kilometer railway line from Przemysl to Lviv.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – Smart-holding has started talks with the Bulgarian government on the purchase of Kremikovtzi steel mill, the largest Bulgarian steel mill, which has recently had operational difficulties.

Smart-holding told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday that the talks have only just started.