Enel sees 75 mln t of CO2 offsets in 2008-2012

MILAN, March 13 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest utility Enel (ENEI.MI) said on Thursday it expects to accumulate 75 million tonnes of carbon dioxide offsets, known as CERs, in 2008-2012 and trade about 40 million tonnes of CERs on the secondary market.

The Kyoto Protocol on global warming allows companies and countries in the West to meet domestic greenhouse gas emission limits in 2008-2012 by buying carbon offsets, Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) from developing countries.

Enel has already built up a portfolio of registered and implemented projects worth 56 million tonnes and another 19 million tonnes of projects are expected to be registered and implemented, the utility said in a presentation.

Enel, a major carbon market player, said it would use about 35 million tonnes of CERs directly for compliance with CO2 reduction targets, and would sell about 40 percent on the secondary market.

Enel said its CERs portfolio was worth more than 500 million euros ($768.2 million) and was robust, with 75 percent of projects "without any approval/implementation risk."

The utility said its generation fleet has been hedged against CO2 prices after 2012, but gave no details.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova)