Egypt will conclude a deal that will see Russian energy giant, Gazprom, supplying the North African country with liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments later this month, it emerged on Monday.

Egyptian Oil Minister Sharif Ismail told Reuters at the weekend that Egypt had approved last April for Gazprom to supply seven LNG shipments to assist the country deliver gas supplies the country desperately needs to tackle its worst energy crisis in 10 years. He said Gazprom mission would pay Egypt a visit later this month.

The Gazprom deal, if successful, would be the second LNG import agreement since Egypt finalised a deal for the necessary import infrastructure in November last year. Egypt endorsed a contract with Algeria for six LNG cargoes in late December last year.

The North African nation, which has 86 million people, depends highly on gas to generate power for households and industry. It has however found it hard to secure imports because it lacks terminal to process LNG, which is natural gas chilled into a liquid state.

After two years of delays, Egypt contracted Norway’s Hoegh LNG for a floating storage and regasification unit, opening the door to LNG imports, Reuters say.

The terminal is expected to start operating by March end.