CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek al-Molla has replaced the heads of state oil company EGPC and state gas company EGAS, the Ministry of Petroleum said in a statement on Tuesday.

Abed Ezz el-Regal will replace Tarek al-Hadidi, appointed in April 2016, as head of EGPC while Osama Al Bakly will take over from Mohamed al-Masry as head of EGAS.

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.

(Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)