An announcement last Sunday by Italian oil group ENI that a huge natural gas field has been discovered off the coast of Egypt has now brought the country’s relationship with Israel, and energy deals between them, back into the spotlight. It has also coincided with growing contention in Egypt over energy shortages. “They made the discovery at the right moment,” says Amr Adly, a political economist for the Carnegie Middle East Centre. Not only is Egypt suffering from a “severe energy crisis” caused by gas and oil shortages, “the fact that Egypt became an energy importer in 2012 has been putting pressure on the country’s already dwindling foreign reserves,” he says.