BULGARIA WANTS TO BUY, RE-EXPORT AZERBAIJANI OIL. Visiting Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mikhailova signed a protocol on regular consultations with her Azerbaijani counterpart Hasan Hasanov, Turan reported on 10 November. Mikhailova discussed with both Hasanov and President Heidar Aliev the possibility of Bulgaria's purchasing Azerbaijani oil and the transportation of Caspian oil to Europe via Bulgaria. Hasanov agreed that some Azerbaijani oil exported via the Western pipeline to the Georgian port of Supsa could be shipped by tanker to Bulgaria, according to CAUCASUS PRESS. Mikhailova also said Bulgaria wants to accede to the transport agreement concluded by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine within the framework of the TRASECA project. LF

GERMAN EXPERT SEES HOPE FOR UKRAINIAN PRIVATIZATION. A senior analyst at Deutsche Bank Research told RFE/RL on 10 November that despite the apparent impasse between President Leonid Kuchma and the parliament over privatization, there may still be some forward movement, even though large-scale privatization is likely to remain stalled until after the March 1998 elections. Jurgen Conrad said that Kuchma and lawmakers may reach a compromise about the pace of privatization either through the president's sacrificing privatization chief Volodymyr Lanoviy or through a compromise on some other issue. PG