Italy's fuels group ENI forecast on Thursday that there will be a 12.2 percent reduction in natural gas imports form Russia, equal to 2.3 percent of what Italy is expected to consume.

In a statement issued on the sidelines of a special energy summit here, ENI added that on Wednesday it had recorded a 6.8 percent drop in Russian gas imports, which followed a 5.4 percent reduction on Wednesday.

Russia apparently cut back on natural gas exports to meet domestic demand caused by a very severe cold snap.

Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola chaired the special meeting here with Italy's leading energy utilities ENI, ENEL and Edison.

Scajola said that there was no immediate risk of an energy blackout for Italy, thanks to its strong gas reserves.

But Italy needs to take action to guarantee its energy source for the future by reducing its dependency on imported fuels and energy, he added, renewing a call to review Italy's moratorium on nuclear power.

Italy is heavily reliant on foreign gas although it has some deposits of its own. It has significant alternatives to Russia in two north African countries, Algeria and Libya.

Italy gets some 20 billion cubic meters a year from Algeria and eight billion from Libya - more combined than Russia's 24 billion. Most of the rest, 16 billion cubics meters, is piped from Norwegian and Dutch fields in the North Sea.

At the height of winter Italy consumes about 380 million cubic meters of gas every weekday and about 500 million at the weekend.

Italy has been getting gas from Russian giant Gazprom since an historic deal in 1969.

Source: Xinhua