“The Regeni case … if it continues for too long it will affect our economic relationship with Egypt,” an unnamed high-level Italian diplomat tells Politico. The thrust of the piece is that while the death of Italian student Giulio Regeni is threatening to freeze over Egypt’s relations with its biggest trading partner, the issue has so far not had an effect on Eni’s Zohr field. The question: How long can it stave off the storm? “You know that the Italian government and the Egyptian government are bashing themselves up over these tensions, so you get worried,” the source added. “It’s a project that’s too big to fail for Egypt,” said Leonardo Bellodi, an international affairs consultant and former vice president at Eni. “If this project were not able to go ahead because of the current situation, the first to suffer would be the Egyptian population,” Bellodi said. “So it wouldn’t make sense to go against the needs of your own population.”