QatarEnergy said on Thursday it had signed a preliminary deal ​with ExxonMobil ⁠and Egypt's government to study the development ‌and commercialisation of gas discoveries in Cyprus using Egypt's existing gas ​and LNG infrastructure.

The memorandum of understanding "highlights Egypt’s role as a ​potential hub for ​Eastern Mediterranean gas, supporting deeper integration between Egypt and Cyprus in the field of ⁠natural gas while optimising the utilisation of existing infrastructure", QatarEnergy said in a statement.

Egypt's liquefaction plants, which can convert natural gas into liquefied natural gas ​for export, ‌have long ⁠been underutilised. Its ⁠gas infrastructure serves both domestic consumers and global markets. QatarEnergy, the ​world's single largest producer of ‌LNG before the U.S.-Israeli war ⁠with Iran, faces a prolonged recovery from Iranian attacks in March that damaged two of its 14 LNG trains, sidelining 12.8 million tons per year of capacity for three to five years.

It is also largely unable to ship LNG due to the effective closure of the Strait of ‌Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global ⁠oil and gas supplies flowed ​before the conflict.

The agreement is a step toward advancing energy cooperation across the Eastern Mediterranean, said ​QatarEnergy CEO ‌Saad al-Kaabi, also Qatar's minister of ⁠state for energy.

(Reporting by ​Yousef Saba; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)