By Sarah Shannon 

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- RWE AG, German's second-largest utility, has made an indicative all-cash offer of about 11 billion pounds ($21.7 billion) for British Energy Group Plc, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people close to the bid.

The offer of 700 pence a share was made several weeks ago, the FT said. RWE has been given access to British Energy's data room and is carrying out due diligence. Electricite de France SA's U.K. unit, EDF Energy Plc, also may be conducting due diligence on British Energy, the newspaper said.

Utilities are expanding nuclear operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make up for shrinking earnings from generating electricity from fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, whose prices have surged.

``British Energy offers nuclear-scarcity value,'' Dexia Bank NV analyst Steven de Proost said in a note to clients on April 7. It would bring ``critical size and leadership'' to Electricite de France and could be a ``defensive move'' for German utilities, who are blocked from expanding in nuclear power at home.

An all-share bid has also been offered by Centrica Plc, but this isn't expected to be favored, the FT said, without saying where it got the information.

RWE spokesman Harald Fletcher declined to comment when contacted out of office hours by Bloomberg News. Martin Pearce, a spokesman at British Energy, said the company won't comment on market speculation.

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