Saudi oil workers
An oil worker walks past a ChevronTexaco drilling platform January 15, 2003 near the Saudi Arabian border in Kuwait, in this 2003 file photo. Getty Images

ROME (Reuters) Italian energy group Eni said on Sunday it had discovered potentially one of the world's largest natural-gas fields off the Egyptian coast, predicting 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."

(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Stephen Jewkes)