Egypt to receive first LNG shipment from Rosneft in May

Egypt will receive the first of five agreed shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia's Rosneft this month, an official at the state gas board EGAS told Reuters on Thursday.

Last year Egypt and Rosneft signed a memorandum of understanding for a slew of petroleum products as well as 24 LNG cargoes. Only five of the 24 initially agreed cargoes were later inked into a final deal.

"We're receiving the first shipments of LNG from Rosneft this month out of the five shipments that were agreed upon," said the EGAS official, declining to provide the value of the shipment or its size.

Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer because of declining oil and gas production and increasing consumption. It is trying to speed up production at recent discoveries to fill its energy gap as soon as possible.

Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, does not produce its own LNG yet but plans to launch production jointly with Exxon Mobil after 2018.

Reporting by Abdel Rahman Adel and Ehab Farouk