Egypt will sign an agreement with Russia's Gazprom to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) this week, the head of Egypt's state gas company said on Tuesday, as the country seeks new sources of oil and gas in the face of persistent energy shortages.

"A Gazprom delegation arrived in Cairo today [Tuesday] to negotiate the quantities of gas to provide through 2020. The agreement with them will be signed during the week," Khalid Abdel Badie told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Egypt and Gazprom agreed in principle last April to import seven LNG shipments. No details on the volumes have been disclosed.

Egypt's oil minister Sharif Ismail told the local bourse last month that the country had agreed in principle with Gazprom to import 35 LNG shipments between 2015 and 2020. No details of those volumes have been disclosed either.

The country of about 90 million relies heavily on gas to generate power for households and industry, but has had difficulty securing imports because it lacks a terminal to process LNG, which is natural gas chilled into a liquid state.

But after two years of delays, Egypt contracted Norway's Hoegh LNG for a floating storage and regasification unit, opening the door to LNG imports once the terminal is operational by the end of March.