Who can meet Egypt's energy needs?

As a tumultuous summer grinds to a close, Egypt is still struggling to close the gap meets its daunting energy needs without further strain to its economy or the patience of the general public. Under new leadership, Cairo has looked at home and abroad for some energy relief, but found that political realities often make certain options impossible.

In addition to the unnerving task of meeting the needs of the region’s most populous country, Cairo has struggled to keep energy prices manageable while coping with a sharp decline in foreign investment and domestic production, all while drawing down an unsustainable public subsidy program.

This summer, the notion of addressing energy shortages through a reversal of gas trade agreements with Israel become a possibility with reports of a new agreement. In June, production partners in Israel’s Leviathan offshore gas field has signed a non-binding agreement with the BG Group to export gas from a “floating production, storage and offloading [vessel]” and connected to an LNG facility through a subsea pipeline.