Italian energy group Eni finds huge gas field off Egypt's coast

Italian energy group Eni announced on Sunday that it had potentially discovered one of the world's largest natural-gas fields off the Egyptian coast, and predicted that the find could help meet Egypt's gas needs for decades to come.

Italian energy group Eni announced on Sunday that it had potentially discovered one of the world's largest natural-gas fields off the Egyptian coast, and predicted that the find could help meet Egypt's gas needs for decades to come.

"According to the well and geophysical data available, the field could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas in place," Eni said in a statement.

It said the Zohr discovery well was located at a depth of 1,450 metres (4,757 feet).

"Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea and could become one of the world's largest natural-gas finds," the statement concluded.