E.ON Is in Talks With Gazprom on Lower Gas Prices

German utility E.ON said it is in talks with the Russian natural-gas producer Gazprom on lowering prices.

“Contracts with suppliers need adjusting,” said Klaus Schaefer, chief executive officer of E.ON’s Ruhrgas natural gas unit, at a press conference at the unit’s headquarter in Essen, Germany. He declined to provide details of the talks with Gazprom or say whether the company was in negotiations with other suppliers.

E.ON Ruhrgas gets 29 percent of its gas from Russia, its biggest provider. The price for the commodity has declined as much as 70 percent in the past two years at the National Balancing Point, Europe’s most important hub, Schaefer said.

E.ON recently agreed to sell its stake in Gazprom. Cooperation with Gazprom will remain unchanged after the stake sale, Schaefer said.

Russia’s state development bank VEB will buy 2.7 percent of E.ON’s Gazprom shares while the rest has been sold on the open market, the German utility said Dec. 1.