Europe's second-largest utility, E.ON , plans to get 15 percent of its gas supplies from liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the medium term, based on 2007 figures, the company's gas chief told German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Bernhard Reutersberg, head of E.ON Ruhrgas, E.ON's import and wholesale unit, told the paper that the unit plans annual purchases of about 10 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas in the medium term.

That compares with a total of about 65 billion cubic meters of gas Ruhrgas sold in 2007, Reutersberg said.

The gas supplier said it also aimed to add about 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas from its own sources in the medium term, he said.

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