CAIRO, Jun 25 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt signed on Thursday a deal with Norwegian seismic surveyor PGS company to carry out the largest seismic exploration project in Egypt's territorial waters in the Mediterranean Sea, the state-owned gas company EGAS said.

The exploration project would be in search of natural gas and petroleum, EGAS said in a statement.

The project would attract leading international exploration companies due to the availability of the necessary seismic  data.

The project is within the state's plan to increase the domestic production of natural gas, said EGAS Chairman Khaled Abdel Badie in the statement.

Nearly 80 percent of Egypt's natural gas reserves are in the eastern and central parts of Egypt's territorial waters in the Mediterranean, Abdel Badie said. He added that the aforementioned areas have been the epicentre of exploration deals and have been mostly covered through international bids during the past few years.

Egypt has been facing its worst energy crisis in years, with power outages on the rise. Power cuts have specifically surged since the start of last summer.

Egyptian authorities have often owed the power crisis to a larger fuel crisis, which mainly involves a shortage in natural gas.