An Italian oil and gas giant has started production in the Gulf of Mexico, it announced.

Eni, which has an 8.5% stake in the field operated by Anadarko Petroleum, said the Lucius field includes six subsea wells.

The company’s share of daily production is expected to be around 7,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) once all the wells are ramped up.

Located 240 miles south of the Louisiana coast in the US, it has a design capacity of 80,000 boed and 450 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The field was discovered in November 2009.