RusEnergy

23 May 2007 - Upstream OnLine - E.ON Ruhrgas has dismissed claims that problems have emerged during talks with Russian partner Gazprom about joint development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, in Siberia. E.ON has a 25% stake in the field. "There is nothing new, especially nothing new that would be negative," chief executive Burckhard Bergmann was quoted as saying by Reuters. He would not be drawn on a likely conclusion of the talks. Bergmann said there had been some procedural delays but they had not affected the essence of the talks. Yesterday, German daily newspaper Die Welt reported that Gazprom that Gazprom wanted to charge E.ON more for the stake. Last year, E.ON agreed to pay Gazprom €1.2 billion ($1.62 billion) and give Gazprom just under 50% of its Hungarian gas trading and storage units, as part of its strategy to produce as much as 20% of the gas it needs from its own sources.