UPDATE 1-Italy to present energy policy in spring - PM

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By Giancarlo Navach

ROVIGO, Italy, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Italian government will present a new national energy policy, including a relaunch of nuclear energy, next spring as it tries to diversify energy supplies, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday.

Italy, which rejected nuclear power in a 1987 referendum in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, depends on oil and gas imports to cover about 80 percent of its energy needs.

"A new national energy plan will be presented in spring, which will be based on three points: diversification of supplies, the start of nuclear energy production and development of renewable and alternative energy," Berlusconi said at the opening ceremony of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

The off-shore terminal in the Adriatic Sea near Rovigo in northern Italy with a capacity of 8 billion cubic metres will start up in the first half of 2009 and will be capable of supplying about 10 percent of Italy's gas needs.

The Rovigo terminal is only the second LNG plant built in the country.

Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola said Italy needs at least two more terminals to ease its dependence on major gas suppliers.

"We are too dependent on Russia and other countries with unstable geopolitical positions," Scajola said on the sidelines of the ceremony, adding that one terminal would be built in Livorno, in central Italy, and another in the south.

Scajola said that under its new energy policy, Italy hoped within 15 years to get 25 percent of its energy from nuclear stations, 25 percent from renewable energy sources and the rest from fossil fuels, including clean coal.

The Adriatic LNG terminal startup would boost competition on Italy's gas market -- now dominated by Italian oil and gas major Eni (ENI.MI) -- said Umberto Quadrino, chief executive of Italy's second-biggest utility Edison (EDN.MI).

Edison owns 10 percent of the terminal but has a right to distribute 80 percent of its output. U.S oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Qatar Petroleum each own 45 percent of the terminal.

Quadrino invited energy companies to make offers for the remaining 20 percent of the terminal capacity but said the procedures had yet to be finalised.

The terminal would work at full capacity in the winter season of 2009-2010 and total investment in the project would be 2 billion euros, said Scott Miller, managing director of Adriatic LNG.

(Writing by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by Christopher Johnson)