Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] is not in talks to buy a stake in German utility company RWE, and plans to solve all issues with Italy's ENI soon, the Russian energy giant's first deputy CEO said Tuesday. German media earlier reported that Gazprom is seeking a 20% stake in RWE AG's subsidiary RWE Westfalen-Weser-Ems AG, a regional energy, gas, and water supply company. "We are not holding talks either with the RWE management or RWE shareholders on this issue," Alexander Medvedev told journalists. RWE Westfalen-Weser-Ems AG serves 5.5 million customers. Its sales in 2005 were $6.5 billion. Discussing Italian oil and gas company ENI, Medvedev said Gazprom is planning to resolve all remaining issues with the company by mid-November. In answer to a question on when an agreement will be signed on the companies' joint work on Italy's market, he said practically all issues relating to Gazprom's plans in Italy "have been coordinated, and the small discrepancies in views that remain will be resolved at a meeting of the two companies' leaders, scheduled for the middle of November." Medvedev attributed the failure to sign an agreement, originally scheduled for October 15, to the pressing schedules of the companies' top officials. In June, Italy's foreign minister said the country is ready to open its market to Gazprom, so that it can sell natural gas directly without having to go through other companies.