Russ Oil-Gas

14 November 2008 - Upstream OnLine - Russian energy giant Gazprom said it is not interested in buying 20% of Spanish energy company Repsol. “Gazprom had and has no plans to buy 20% of Repsol,” Sergei Kupriyanov, the Moscow-based company's spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement today. “All discussions about this arose from a desire to sell the stake, not to buy it. And that's not the same thing,” he added. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said 12 November that Gazprom was considering buying builder Sacyr Vallehermosa’s 20% stake in Repsol, said a Bloomberg report. Gazprom supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas and has said it wants to expand into marketing and distribution, as well as liquefied natural gas. Gazprom is not interested in buying a stake in Repsol, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also said in comments broadcast by Cadena Ser radio today. “This has not been, is not and will not be on Gazprom's horizon nor on Repsol's, of course,” Zapatero said. “There is nothing real in this,” he added.