Enrico Mattei

Enrico Mattei was an international businessman and politically powerful head of Italy’s Eni SpA (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi; “State Hydrocarbons Authority”), which had authority over that country’s petroleum resources.

As a young man, prior to World War II, Mattei started a small chemical business in Milan, which prospered throughout his life. During the war he worked in the underground movement and organized an anti-Fascist force 82,000 strong in northern Italy. He was decorated for those efforts and became active in the Christian Democratic Party in 1945. With his party in control of the government, Mattei was made northern commissioner of Agip (Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli), a state-owned petroleum company, and given explicit instructions to liquidate the company and sell its assets to private (including foreign-owned) oil companies. Instead, Mattei directed the agency to increase exploration in the Po River valley, and soon the drillers succeeded in discovering important natural gas reserves. Future finds of gas and crude oil deposits in Italy saved the country millions of lire on foreign imports and established the role of state-owned enterprises in directing Italy’s energy future.

In 1953 Italy created Eni, placed Agip under the new authority, and made Mattei its president. Three years later, new natural resources laws were passed, limiting foreign exploration and entitling Eni to land-purchase rights around any new oil deposits. Mattei continued to expand production and Eni holdings to include gas stations, refineries, tankers, and chemical and manufacturing plants. To safeguard Italy’s foreign oil supply, Mattei initiated innovative partnerships with the governments of Egypt and Iran. Instead of the traditional 50-50 division of profits, Mattei negotiated new arrangements in which the host country received 50 percent of the partnership’s profits and then had the option of joining in the production costs and taking half of the remaining 50 percent. This so-called 75-25 formula, also known as the Mattei formula, was seen as a direct challenge to the arrangements usually negotiated by the major oil companies. Through Mattei, Eni also negotiated oil concessions in France, Africa, and Spain, as well as an agreement to import large quantities of crude oil from the Soviet Union in exchange for exports of manufactured goods.

Mattei was killed in a crash of his private jet on a flight from Catania, Sicily, to Milan. Conspiracy theories surrounding his death have been the subject of numerous magazine articles, books, television docudramas, and a major film (Il caso Mattei [1972; The Mattei Affair], directed by Francesco Rosi).