E.ON Ruhrgas AG, Germany's largest importer of natural gas, Tuesday reiterated that it will further raise its wholesale gas prices in light of rising crude oil prices.
However, Chief Executive Bernhard Reutersberg Tuesday rejected recent media reports that the natural gas unit of E.ON AG (EOA.XE) would raise its wholesale gas prices by up to 25%.
"Our planned price increases should be in the small double-digit-percentage range," Reutersberg told reporters at the company's annual press conference in Essen.
Over the weekend, E.ON Ruhrgas was criticized by the media and politicians for its plans to raise gas prices.
Reutersberg rejected that criticism, saying that gas prices are linked to the price of crude oil.
"Our gas procurement prices have already risen fast and more substantially than the selling prices to our customers," he said. "Steep price increases are currently discernible on gas exchanges as well."
Higher procurement costs make prices increases inevitable, he added.
E.ON's pan-European gas market unit, which primarily consists of E.ON Ruhrgas, posted an almost 10% year-on-year decline in earnings before interest and taxes in the first quarter of 2008 in light of rising procurement costs that couldn't immediately be passed on to customers.