With a major new gasfield on stream, Egypt’s energy market is changing. Self-sufficiency should be restored within the next 18 months. The country can once again become an exporter and build on its existing role as one of the most important trading hubs in the region, ideally placed to link western and eastern markets.

Geography is destiny. A state’s physical location determines its potential and opportunities. If Kurdistan, for instance, were not landlocked it would be a fully independent nation. Eygpt’s opportunity is that it finds itself at the crossroads of the emerging international trade in natural gas.

In December, production of natural gas began from the giant Zohr field 150 miles off the Egyptian coast in the eastern Mediterranean. First, supplies from the field — which, with reserves estimated at 30tn cubic feet, is one of the largest discoveries of the last two decades — reached Port Said; production is set to rise to 2.7 bcf/day by 2019. Its development in little more than two years represents a great success for the operating company, Italy' s Eni. A number of smaller developments, including BP' s West Nile Delta field, are adding to supplies.