ESSEN, Germany – A state-owned Qatari entity has held initial talks with German utility RWE about buying its DEA oil and gas exploration and production unit, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter. RWE in March said it was planning to sell DEA in a move to slash capital spending and cut its debt pile, with sources and analysts valuing the unit at about 5-8 billion euros ($6.52-$10.43 billion). Until now, BASF group's oil and gas arm Wintershall seemed to have been the only company to have expressed an interest in buying DEA and RWE has said that it does not expect the unit to be sold this year. The Journal reported that RWE would like to attract numerous bids for DEA and seemed willing to give Qatar more time. One of the people familiar with the matter told the Journal that the state-owned entity that had held talks with RWE was sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority. — Reuters
