CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt has cancelled its tender to rent a third natural gas import (LNG) regasification terminal as it is no longer needed, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The tender to rent a third regasification terminal was cancelled due to a lack of need for it and until we reassess the gas production capacity of Egypt and the consumption levels over the next few years,” he said.

Once a net energy exporter, Egypt began importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year and has leased two floating and storage regasification units (FSRU) already to help avert power shortages caused by falling energy production and rising consumption.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; writing by Asma Alsharif; editing by Louise Heavens)