Gazprom, RWE discuss joint venture

German energy company RWE and Russian natural gas giant Gazprom announced they've discussed the potential for a joint venture in the energy sector. Alexei Miller, chief executive officer at Gazprom, met with RWE Chief Executive Officer Jurgen Grossmann at Gazprom headquarters in Moscow. "The parties discussed potential establishment of a joint venture in the energy sector," Gazprom said in a statement. The companies in July signed a memorandum of understanding to team up for European gas- and coal-fired power technology. In August, Andrei Chernoshchekov, an official at Gazprom's foreign economic department, said RWE could get gas under "competitive prices" through a joint venture with RWE for new power plants in Benelux countries, Germany and Great Britain. Both sides had argued, along with Germany's largest utility company E.ON, over gas prices. Gazprom links the price to oil, a mechanism the Germany companies had challenged. RWE suffered recent economic setbacks in part because of a German decision to scrap nuclear power.