Egypt is planning to issue a tender that will see the North African state import gas from its regional neighbours.

According to Egyptian oil minister Osama Kamal, talks have already taken place with Algeria and Qatar regarding importing gas for power generation in the country, and in November, Qatar also announced that it is working with Egyptian investment firm Citadel Capital to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility, that would pave the way for the Gulf state to import gas into Egypt.

Traditionally, Egypt has been a net gas exporter. According to the UK’s BP, Egypt had gas reserves of more than 77 trillion cubic feet at the end of 2011 and produced 2.1 trillion cubic feet during the same period.