KIEV, Sept. 19 ??“ Seven companies have submitted their bids with estimates for a tender for the overhaul of the 93-km-long stretch of the M-06 Kiev-Chop highway from Brody to Rivne.

VIENNA, Sept. 19 ??“ The role of nuclear power in Ukraine's energy security will grow in the mid- and long-term, Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko said at the 50th session of the IAEA general Conference in Vienna on Tuesday.

KIEV, Sept. 20 ??“ Ukraine's government has proposed allocating UAH26.8 billion in the 2007 national budget to fund ???innovation and investment??? - almost 50% more than in 2006, Deputy Finance Minister Anatoliy Miarkovsky said Tuesday.

KIEV, Sept. 20 - Russia and Ukraine may postpone holding a round of natural gas talks that had been scheduled late September, an official at the Ukrainian Energy and Fuel Ministry said Tuesday.

LONDON, Sept. 20 - Lukoil-Neftekhim and the German engineering company UHDE GmbH are to sign a contract in October to reconstruct a chlorine and hydrate of sodium production plant at Karpatneftekhim Ltd. (Ukraine), which is a part of Lukoil-Neftekhim Group.

KHARTSYZSK, Sept. 20 - Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant is planning to enter the foreign borrowing market in 2006, according to the plant's director general, Andriy Shyshatsky.

KIEV, Sept. 20 ??“ Sweden??™s Alfa Laval, a world leader in fluid control systems, is to boost commodity turnover by around 83% in 2005, to ?15 mln, Hennady Rudenko, the director general of the company's Ukrainian-based representative office, said in an interview with the Business weekly magazine, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

MOSCOW, Sept. 20 - The Evraz Group has spent around $25 mln on buying minority stakes in the Ordzhonikidze and Marhanets ore-mining and dressing mills from the industrial and financial concern Prydniprovia, which is controlled by businessman and ex-President Leonid Kuchma's son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk.

KIEV, Sept. 20 - The largest operator on the grain and oil seed market, Grain Trading Company Holding (based in Kyiv), has doubled its oil seed processing capacity, to 600,000-650,000 tons per year through reconstructing the Kirovohrad oil-extraction plant (Kirovohradoliya) and buying the Agroexport company.

KYIV, Aug 19 - For the effective development of the assets of Naftogaz Group in Egypt, it is first of all necessary to accelerate the growth of hydrocarbon production at the Alam El Shawish East Western Desert concession area, as well as to accelerate the implementation of major infrastructure projects.