"I have no doubts that a German company will become a shareholder," the head of Gazprom's foreign projects department, Stanislav Tsygankov, said Monday.
Earlier this month, Italian company Eni's Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said he believed German company Wintershall may be interested in taking a stake in the South Stream project.
Gazprom and Eni hold 50% each in the marine section of the 63 billion cu m/year pipeline, the first gas through which is expected in late 2015.
Tsygankov Monday declined to name the company that is involved in the talks.
"It is one of our partners," he said, declining to elaborate.
When asked by Platts if Gazprom is ready to reduce its 50% stake in the project, Tsygankov said: "We are not yet saying that we are to offer our stake."
He added that concrete talks with the German side on the issue are yet to start.
"There is an intention, there is no concrete talks yet," he said.
At the same time, he hinted that Gazprom would like Eni to reduce its stake further in order to allow a German company to enter the project.
"We have an understanding that this will be a European project with no [other] dominant participants but Gazprom," he told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Moscow.
"I think this will be a decent option for Eni. I think they are not ready to be a leader [in the project]," he said, adding that Eni was facing political problems related to this project.
Under agreements reached earlier this year, French utility EDF is expected to take between a 10% and 20% stake in South Stream from Eni's stake by the end of the year.
Tsygankov said the companies are on schedule to complete EDF's joining the project, but declined to say what stake exactly EDF is to get in South Stream.
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