Enrico Mattei
Encyclopedia
Enrico Mattei was an Italian
public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency Agip
, a state enterprise established by the Fascist
regime. Instead Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi
(ENI). Under his direction ENI negotiated important oil concessions in the Middle East as well as a significant trade agreement with the Soviet Union
which helped break the oligopoly
of the 'Seven Sisters
' that dominated the mid 20th century oil industry
. He also introduced the principle whereby the country that owned exploited oil reserves
received 75% of the profits.
Mattei, who became a powerful figure in Italy, was a left-wing Christian Democrat
, and a member of parliament from 1948 to 1953. Mattei made ENI a powerful company, so much so that Italians called it "the state within the state." He died in a mysterious plane crash in 1962, likely caused by a bomb in the plane. The unsolved death of Mattei has obsessed Italy for years and was the subject of an award-winning film The Mattei Affair
by Francesco Rosi
in 1972.
, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, Marche
, as the second of five children of Antonio Mattei (a carabiniere
(a member of the Italian national gendarmerie
) and Angela Galvani. In 1923 he became an apprentice in the tannery
industry in Matelica
. His career was rapid; from factory hand he quickly moved on to become a chemical assistant and then to laboratory chief at the age of 21. After his military service he became the tannery owner’s chief assistant. However, the economic crisis at the end of the 1920s made business going from bad to worse until the tannery closes.
Mattei moved to Milan where he worked as a sales representative for foreign companies in tanning dyes and solvents. In 1931 he became a member of the National Fascist Party
created by Benito Mussolini
but was not active in politics. Subsequently he set up a factory producing oil-based emulsifiers for the tanning and textile industries with his brother and sister. In 1934 he founded Industria Chimica Lombarda and two years later, in 1936, he married Greta Paulas, in Vienna. After acquiring an accountancy qualification, he enrolled at the Catholic University in Milan.
In May 1943 he met the Christian Democrat
leader Giuseppe Spataro
, who introduced him into anti-Fascist circles in Milan against the Fascist regime
of Mussolini. After July 25, 1943, when Mussolini was forced to resign, Mattei joined a partisan group of the Italian resistance movement
in the mountains around Matelica, supplying them with weapons. He is able to join the resistance, despite suspicion over his former membership of the Fascist Party. His role is rather marginal, concentrating mainly on administering and organising activities. After a number of roundups he escapes to Milan.
Impressed by his organisational and military skills, the Christian Democrats put him in command of their partisan forces. On October 26, 1944 he was captured in Milan, along with others, at the Christian Democrats’ secret headquarters in Milan. Detained at the military barracks in Como
, he was able to escape on December 3, 1944, taking advantage of a confusion caused by a short circuit which he himself may have engineered. Mattei participated in the North Italian military command of the National Liberation Committee
( - CLN) on behalf of the Christian Democrats. He was decorated by the United States with the Silver Star
.
(Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli - General Italian Oil Company), the national oil
company created by the Fascists, with instructions to close it as soon as possible. Mattei, instead, worked hard to restructure the company and transform it into one of the nation's most important economic assets.
In 1949 Mattei made an astonishing public announcement: the soil of the Po Valley in Northern Italy was rich in oil and methane
, and Italy would solve all its energy needs using its own resources. Through the Italian press, he then encouraged the idea that the nation (still suffering from the consequences of defeat in war
), would soon become rich. Agip's financial value immediately grew in the Stock Exchange markets, and the company (owned by the State, but operating as a private company) became at once solid and important. The reality was a little different: in the territory of Cortemaggiore
, in the Valley of Po
, a certain amount of methane had been found together with a small quantity of oil.
Mattei’s strategy was to use natural gas to support the development of a national industry in Northern Italy, sustaining the postwar boom known as the "Italian economic miracle
." The gas was not a mere substitute for imported oil, but a cheaper and more functional substitute for imported coal for the growing industrial activities of. High profits from natural gas sales were plowed back into exploration, production, the expansion of pipelines, and the acquisition of new customers.
Agip obtained an exclusive concession for gas and oil exploration
within the national territory, and was able to retain the profits. Political views were divided: the leftists supporting him, and the conservatives (together with the industrialists), opposing him. At this time Mattei is alleged to have widely used unofficial financial resources of Agip for extensive bribery, especially of politicians and journalists. He used to say of political parties: "I use them like I would use a taxi: I sit in, I pay for the trip, I get out". Agip gained control of hundreds of companies in all economic fields in the country. Mattei paid great attention to the press, and Agip soon took possession of several newspapers and two agencies.
In 1953 a law
created the ENI
, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, into which Agip was merged. Mattei was initially its president, then also the administrator and the general director. In practice, Eni was Mattei and Mattei was Eni.
are like that little cat: in that pot there is oil for everybody, but someone does not want to let us get close to it."
This kind of fable made Mattei extremely popular in the economically poor Italy of the time, and he gained the popular support that was needed to gain political support. To break the oligopoly of the 'Seven Sisters
' (a term he coined to refer to the dominant oil companies of the mid-20th century), Mattei initiated agreements with the poorest countries of the Middle East
and countries of the former soviet bloc
as well. Mattei visited Moscow in 1959, where he brokered an oil import deal with the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War
over intense protests from NATO and the U.S. He also publicly supported independence movements against colonial powers, which allowed ENI to take advantage of postcolonial bitterness in places like Algeria. To opponents who charged that he was helping Communists and making Italy dependent on a capricious flow from the Soviet Union, Mattei answered that he bought from the cheapest sources.
Mattei forged agreements with Tunisia
and Morocco
, to which he offered a 50-50 partnership for extracting their oil, very different from the sort of concessions normally offered by the major oil companies. To Iran
and Egypt
he additionally offered that the risk involved in prospecting was entirely ENI's: if there was no petrol, the countries would not have to pay one cent. In 1957, with ENI already competing with giants like Esso
or Shell
, Mattei secretly financed the independence movement against colonialist France
in the Algerian War.
In 1960, after concluding the agreement with the Soviet Union and while negotiating with China
, Mattei publicly declared that the American monopoly
was over. The reaction was initially mild, and he (ENI) was invited to take part in the partition of the prospecting map in the Sahara
. However, Mattei made the independence of Algeria a condition of his acceptance. No agreement would be subscribed until that event. As a consequence of his stance, Mattei was considered to have become a target of the French far-right terrorist organization OAS, opposed to Algeria's independence, which began sending him explicit threats.
, Mattei's jetplane, a Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, crashed in the surroundings of the small village of Bascapè
in Lombardy
, in the course of a storm. All three men on board were killed: Mattei, his pilot Irnerio Bertuzzi
, and the American Time–Life Journalist William McHale. The inquiries officially declared that it was an accident. The Italian Minister of Defense
, Giulio Andreotti
, was responsible for the accident investigation.
During his controversial tenure of ENI, Mattei had made many enemies. The US National Security Council
described him as an irritation and an obstacle in a classified report from 1958. The French could not forgive him for doing business with the pro-independence movement in Algeria. Responsibility for his death has been attributed to the CIA, to the French extreme-nationalist group, the OAS, to the Sicilian Mafia.
According to a 2001 TV documentary by Bernhard Pletschinger and Claus Bredenbrock, evidence was immediately destroyed at the crash site. Flight instruments were put into acid. On October 25, 1995, the Italian public service broadcaster RAI
reported the exhumation of the human remains of Mattei and Bertuzzi. Metal debris deformed by an explosion was found in the bones. There is speculation that the fuse of an explosive device
was triggered by the mechanism of the landing gear. In 1994 the investigations were reopened and in 1997 a metal indicator and a ring were further analyzed by professor Firrao of Politecnico di Torino and explosion tracks were found . Based on this evidence the episode was reclassified by the judge to a voluntary murder, but without being able to name the offender(s).
Not trusting the Sifar
(Italian secret service), even though it was full of his loyal supporters, Mattei constituted a sort of personal security guard made of former partisans, ENI staff - and he felt protected by them.
Other facts on the crash:
, a nationalist, while others point to his hunger for power, and his cold calculating nature. The doubts about his possible murder, however, are more compelling than the theory of a technical accident.
Mattei coined the term "Seven Sisters" to refer to the dominant oil companies of the mid-20th century. In 2000, the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
, a natural gas pipeline from Algeria via Tunisia to Sicily and thence to mainland Italy, was named after Enrico Mattei. ENI named a research institute after Mattei. The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of sustainable development and global governance. FEEM’s mission is to improve the quality of decision-making in public and private spheres.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency Agip
Agip
Agip is an Italian automotive gasoline and diesel retailer established in 1926. It is a subsidiary of the multinational petroleum company Eni.In 2003, Eni S.p.A...
, a state enterprise established by the Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
regime. Instead Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...
(ENI). Under his direction ENI negotiated important oil concessions in the Middle East as well as a significant trade agreement with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
which helped break the oligopoly
Oligopoly
An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers . The word is derived, by analogy with "monopoly", from the Greek ὀλίγοι "few" + πόλειν "to sell". Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others...
of the 'Seven Sisters
Seven Sisters (oil companies)
The "Seven Sisters" was a term coined in the 1950s by businessman Enrico Mattei, then-head of the Italian state oil company Eni, to describe the seven oil companies which formed the "Consortium for Iran" and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s...
' that dominated the mid 20th century oil industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
. He also introduced the principle whereby the country that owned exploited oil reserves
Oil reserves
The total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place. However, because of reservoir characteristics and limitations in petroleum extraction technologies, only a fraction of this oil can be brought to the surface, and it is...
received 75% of the profits.
Mattei, who became a powerful figure in Italy, was a left-wing Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
, and a member of parliament from 1948 to 1953. Mattei made ENI a powerful company, so much so that Italians called it "the state within the state." He died in a mysterious plane crash in 1962, likely caused by a bomb in the plane. The unsolved death of Mattei has obsessed Italy for years and was the subject of an award-winning film The Mattei Affair
The Mattei Affair
The Mattei Affair is a 1972 film directed by Francesco Rosi. It depicts the life and mysterious death of Enrico Mattei, an Italian businessman who in the aftermath of World War II managed to avoid the sale of the nascent Italian oil and hydrocarbon industry to US companies and developed them in...
by Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
in 1972.
Early life
Enrico Mattei was born in AcqualagnaAcqualagna
Acqualagna is a comune in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino in the Italian region Marche, located about 70 km west of Ancona and about 40 km southwest of Pesaro. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 4,304 and an area of 50.8 km²....
, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
, as the second of five children of Antonio Mattei (a carabiniere
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
(a member of the Italian national gendarmerie
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
) and Angela Galvani. In 1923 he became an apprentice in the tannery
Tannery
Tannery may refer to:* Tannery , a facility where the tanning process is applied to hide to produce leather* Paul Tannery , a French mathematician and historian of mathematics...
industry in Matelica
Matelica
Matelica is a comune of the Province of Macerata in the Italian region of Marche. Located about 60 km southwest of Ancona and 35 km west of Macerata, it extends over an area of 81.0 km² and has a population of 10,316 .The municipality of Matelica comprises the hamlets of Balzani,...
. His career was rapid; from factory hand he quickly moved on to become a chemical assistant and then to laboratory chief at the age of 21. After his military service he became the tannery owner’s chief assistant. However, the economic crisis at the end of the 1920s made business going from bad to worse until the tannery closes.
Mattei moved to Milan where he worked as a sales representative for foreign companies in tanning dyes and solvents. In 1931 he became a member of the National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
created by Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
but was not active in politics. Subsequently he set up a factory producing oil-based emulsifiers for the tanning and textile industries with his brother and sister. In 1934 he founded Industria Chimica Lombarda and two years later, in 1936, he married Greta Paulas, in Vienna. After acquiring an accountancy qualification, he enrolled at the Catholic University in Milan.
In May 1943 he met the Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
leader Giuseppe Spataro
Giuseppe Spataro
An important political figure, Giuseppe Spataro, was born in Vasto, on 12 June 1897. His parents, Anna and Alfonso Nasci, were a high-class Italian family, living in the urban center within the province Chieti....
, who introduced him into anti-Fascist circles in Milan against the Fascist regime
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
of Mussolini. After July 25, 1943, when Mussolini was forced to resign, Mattei joined a partisan group of the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
in the mountains around Matelica, supplying them with weapons. He is able to join the resistance, despite suspicion over his former membership of the Fascist Party. His role is rather marginal, concentrating mainly on administering and organising activities. After a number of roundups he escapes to Milan.
Impressed by his organisational and military skills, the Christian Democrats put him in command of their partisan forces. On October 26, 1944 he was captured in Milan, along with others, at the Christian Democrats’ secret headquarters in Milan. Detained at the military barracks in Como
Como
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
, he was able to escape on December 3, 1944, taking advantage of a confusion caused by a short circuit which he himself may have engineered. Mattei participated in the North Italian military command of the National Liberation Committee
National Liberation Committee
The National Liberation Committee was the underground political entity of Italian Partisans during the German occupation of Italy in the last years of the Second World War. It was a multi-party entity, whose members were united by their anti-fascism...
( - CLN) on behalf of the Christian Democrats. He was decorated by the United States with the Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
.
Agip and ENI
In 1945, the National Liberation Committee appointed him to the leadership of AgipAgip
Agip is an Italian automotive gasoline and diesel retailer established in 1926. It is a subsidiary of the multinational petroleum company Eni.In 2003, Eni S.p.A...
(Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli - General Italian Oil Company), the national oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
company created by the Fascists, with instructions to close it as soon as possible. Mattei, instead, worked hard to restructure the company and transform it into one of the nation's most important economic assets.
In 1949 Mattei made an astonishing public announcement: the soil of the Po Valley in Northern Italy was rich in oil and methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
, and Italy would solve all its energy needs using its own resources. Through the Italian press, he then encouraged the idea that the nation (still suffering from the consequences of defeat in war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
), would soon become rich. Agip's financial value immediately grew in the Stock Exchange markets, and the company (owned by the State, but operating as a private company) became at once solid and important. The reality was a little different: in the territory of Cortemaggiore
Cortemaggiore
Cortemaggiore is an Italian comune located in the Province of Piacenza.Founded in the 1479 by the Pallavicino family, over an old roman site, it was the capital of the ancient Stato Pallavicino....
, in the Valley of Po
Po River
The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...
, a certain amount of methane had been found together with a small quantity of oil.
Mattei’s strategy was to use natural gas to support the development of a national industry in Northern Italy, sustaining the postwar boom known as the "Italian economic miracle
Italian economic miracle
The Italian economic miracle is the name often used by historians, economists and mass media to designate the prolonged period of sustained economic growth in Italy comprised between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, and in particular the years 1950-63...
." The gas was not a mere substitute for imported oil, but a cheaper and more functional substitute for imported coal for the growing industrial activities of. High profits from natural gas sales were plowed back into exploration, production, the expansion of pipelines, and the acquisition of new customers.
Agip obtained an exclusive concession for gas and oil exploration
Oil exploration
Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil and natural gas...
within the national territory, and was able to retain the profits. Political views were divided: the leftists supporting him, and the conservatives (together with the industrialists), opposing him. At this time Mattei is alleged to have widely used unofficial financial resources of Agip for extensive bribery, especially of politicians and journalists. He used to say of political parties: "I use them like I would use a taxi: I sit in, I pay for the trip, I get out". Agip gained control of hundreds of companies in all economic fields in the country. Mattei paid great attention to the press, and Agip soon took possession of several newspapers and two agencies.
In 1953 a law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
created the ENI
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...
, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, into which Agip was merged. Mattei was initially its president, then also the administrator and the general director. In practice, Eni was Mattei and Mattei was Eni.
International influence
Mattei's attention turned to the international oil markets. He invented (or at least, used to tell very often) the story of the little cat: "A little cat arrives where a few big dogs are eating in a pot. The dogs attack him and toss him away. We ItaliansItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
are like that little cat: in that pot there is oil for everybody, but someone does not want to let us get close to it."
This kind of fable made Mattei extremely popular in the economically poor Italy of the time, and he gained the popular support that was needed to gain political support. To break the oligopoly of the 'Seven Sisters
Seven Sisters (oil companies)
The "Seven Sisters" was a term coined in the 1950s by businessman Enrico Mattei, then-head of the Italian state oil company Eni, to describe the seven oil companies which formed the "Consortium for Iran" and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s...
' (a term he coined to refer to the dominant oil companies of the mid-20th century), Mattei initiated agreements with the poorest countries of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and countries of the former soviet bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
as well. Mattei visited Moscow in 1959, where he brokered an oil import deal with the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
over intense protests from NATO and the U.S. He also publicly supported independence movements against colonial powers, which allowed ENI to take advantage of postcolonial bitterness in places like Algeria. To opponents who charged that he was helping Communists and making Italy dependent on a capricious flow from the Soviet Union, Mattei answered that he bought from the cheapest sources.
Mattei forged agreements with Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, to which he offered a 50-50 partnership for extracting their oil, very different from the sort of concessions normally offered by the major oil companies. To Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
he additionally offered that the risk involved in prospecting was entirely ENI's: if there was no petrol, the countries would not have to pay one cent. In 1957, with ENI already competing with giants like Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
or Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, Mattei secretly financed the independence movement against colonialist France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the Algerian War.
In 1960, after concluding the agreement with the Soviet Union and while negotiating with China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Mattei publicly declared that the American monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
was over. The reaction was initially mild, and he (ENI) was invited to take part in the partition of the prospecting map in the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
. However, Mattei made the independence of Algeria a condition of his acceptance. No agreement would be subscribed until that event. As a consequence of his stance, Mattei was considered to have become a target of the French far-right terrorist organization OAS, opposed to Algeria's independence, which began sending him explicit threats.
Death
On October 27, 1962 on a flight from Catania (Sicily) to the Milan Linate AirportLinate Airport
Linate Airport is one of the three major airports of Milan, Italy, along with Malpensa Airport and Orio al Serio Airport. Due to its closer proximity to Milan—it is east southeast of the city, compared with Malpensa, which is northwest of the city—it is mainly used for domestic and short-haul...
, Mattei's jetplane, a Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, crashed in the surroundings of the small village of Bascapè
Bascapè
Bascapè is a comune in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 20 km southeast of Milan and about 20 km northeast of Pavia...
in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, in the course of a storm. All three men on board were killed: Mattei, his pilot Irnerio Bertuzzi
Irnerio Bertuzzi
Irnerio Bertuzzi was an Italian military aviator of World War II who also served as personal pilot to Enrico Mattei, head of the Italian petroleum company Agip...
, and the American Time–Life Journalist William McHale. The inquiries officially declared that it was an accident. The Italian Minister of Defense
Italian Minister of Defense
This is a list of Italian Ministers of Defence since 1947....
, Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
, was responsible for the accident investigation.
During his controversial tenure of ENI, Mattei had made many enemies. The US National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
described him as an irritation and an obstacle in a classified report from 1958. The French could not forgive him for doing business with the pro-independence movement in Algeria. Responsibility for his death has been attributed to the CIA, to the French extreme-nationalist group, the OAS, to the Sicilian Mafia.
According to a 2001 TV documentary by Bernhard Pletschinger and Claus Bredenbrock, evidence was immediately destroyed at the crash site. Flight instruments were put into acid. On October 25, 1995, the Italian public service broadcaster RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
reported the exhumation of the human remains of Mattei and Bertuzzi. Metal debris deformed by an explosion was found in the bones. There is speculation that the fuse of an explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
was triggered by the mechanism of the landing gear. In 1994 the investigations were reopened and in 1997 a metal indicator and a ring were further analyzed by professor Firrao of Politecnico di Torino and explosion tracks were found . Based on this evidence the episode was reclassified by the judge to a voluntary murder, but without being able to name the offender(s).
Not trusting the Sifar
SISDE
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica , was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replaced by AISI....
(Italian secret service), even though it was full of his loyal supporters, Mattei constituted a sort of personal security guard made of former partisans, ENI staff - and he felt protected by them.
Other facts on the crash:
- According to Phillipe Thyraud de Vosjoli, a former agent of the French secret service SDECE, SDECE agents were responsible for the 1962 plane crash which took the life of Mattei. Mattei was on the verge of engineering an Italian takeover of French oil interests in Algeria. A French agent code-named Laurent tinkered with Mattei's aircraft.
- When preparing the film The Mattei AffairThe Mattei AffairThe Mattei Affair is a 1972 film directed by Francesco Rosi. It depicts the life and mysterious death of Enrico Mattei, an Italian businessman who in the aftermath of World War II managed to avoid the sale of the nascent Italian oil and hydrocarbon industry to US companies and developed them in...
in 1970, Francesco RosiFrancesco RosiFrancesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
asked the journalist Mauro De MauroMauro De MauroMauro De Mauro was an Italian journalist. He disappeared in September 1970 and his body has not yet been found. His disappearance and probable death remains one of the unsolved mysteries in Italian history.Several explanations for his disappearance are current...
to investigate on the last days of Mattei in SicilySicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. De Mauro soon obtained an audio-tape of his last speech and spent days studying it. De Mauro disappeared eight days after his retrieval of the tape, on September 16, 1970, without leaving a trace. His body was never found. All the Carabinieri and PolicePoliceThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
investigators who searched for De Mauro, and consequently investigated his presumed kidnapping, were later killed. Among them the general Carlo Alberto Dalla ChiesaCarlo Alberto Dalla ChiesaCarlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
.
- Tommaso BuscettaTommaso BuscettaTommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
, an important MafiaMafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
turncoat (pentitoPentitoPentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
), declared that the Sicilian Mafia had been involved in the murder of Mattei. According to Buscetta, Mattei was killed at the request of the American Cosa Nostra because his policies had damaged important American interests in the Middle East. The journalist De Mauro was subsequently killed in 1970, because his investigation on Mattei's death was getting close to the truth. Gaetano Iannì, another pentito, declared that a special agreement had been achieved between the Cosa Nostra and "some foreigners" for the elimination of Mattei, which was organized by Giuseppe Di CristinaGiuseppe Di CristinaGiuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
. These statements triggered new inquiries, including the exhumation of Mattei's corpse.
- Admiral Fulvio Martini, later chief of SISMISISMIServizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
(military secret service), declared that Mattei's plane had been shot down. In 1986, former Italian Prime Minister Amintore FanfaniAmintore FanfaniAmintore Fanfani was an Italian career politician and the 33rd man to serve the office of Prime Minister of the State. He was one of the well-known Italian politicians after the Second World War, and a historical figure of the Christian Democracy .Fanfani and Giovanni Giolitti are still actually...
described the accident as a shooting as well, perhaps the first act of terrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in Italy.
Legacy
Enrico Mattei is a controversial figure in Italian 20th century history. Mattei made ENI a powerful company, so much so that Italians dub it "the state within the state." Some describe him as a sort of paladinPaladin
The paladins, sometimes known as the Twelve Peers, were the foremost warriors of Charlemagne's court, according to the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. They first appear in the early chansons de geste such as The Song of Roland, where they represent Christian martial valor against the...
, a nationalist, while others point to his hunger for power, and his cold calculating nature. The doubts about his possible murder, however, are more compelling than the theory of a technical accident.
Mattei coined the term "Seven Sisters" to refer to the dominant oil companies of the mid-20th century. In 2000, the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
The Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline from Algeria via Tunisia to Sicily and thence to mainland Italy. An extension of the TransMed pipeline delivers Algerian gas to Slovenia.-History:...
, a natural gas pipeline from Algeria via Tunisia to Sicily and thence to mainland Italy, was named after Enrico Mattei. ENI named a research institute after Mattei. The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of sustainable development and global governance. FEEM’s mission is to improve the quality of decision-making in public and private spheres.
External links
- Enrico Mattei the man who looked to the future, Giorgio Capitani, Rai Fiction, 2009