The head of Italian oil and gas group Eni said on March 29 there could be more than 800 million barrels of oil in place in its recent discovery off the coast of Mexico.

“Our aim is to do what we did in Zohr in Egypt,” Claudio Descalzi said at an oil and gas conference, referring to the group’s strategy of using infrastructure already in place in different geographies to speed up time to market.

Earlier this month the major said it had found “meaningful” reserves of oil offshore Mexico after becoming the first international oil company to drill a well in the country following a 2013 reform to open up the sector to investors.

RELATED: Eni Hits Oil In Mexico’s Campeche Bay

Descalzi also said Eni would make a decision this year on whether or not to sell all or part of its retail gas and power business.

“There is a lot of interest from industrial players and funds,” he said.

He said the business was not core but added it was still too soon to say what could be sold.

Offshore