Chapter 47 The Accidental Death of an Italian Oil Giant

If Mattei's plan for energy independence in Italy angered the "Seven Sisters" and the Anglo-American interests behind them, then his efforts to find independent crude oil supplies overseas, especially when the "Seven Sisters" learned that Mattei When Iran signed the terms of contracts with developing countries, it turned this anger into a frenzied hatred of the Italian industrialist. After the fall of Mossadegh, the Shah returned to power with the active support of British and American intelligence services, and he did not completely negate the work done by the former prime minister.The National Iranian Oil Company remains a state-owned entity that controls all underground reserves of oil and gas.However, by April 1954, less than a year after the coup, Anglo American, together with their "little sister", the French state-owned CFP, began negotiating with the Iranian government and NIOC for participation A 25-year oil exploration contract within 100,000 square miles of Iranian territory.

The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (renamed BP this year) obtained 40% of the oil exploration rights in this area (that is, the site obtained by Darcy in the past).In addition, Royal Shell received 14% of the development rate, ranking second.Taken together, British companies get the lion's share of the region's output -- 54 percent.Another 40% was distributed between the American oil majors and a handful of Rockefeller Group "independent" oil companies, and 6% was given to the French CFP company.Matthew found the "Seven Sisters" company and asked for a share of ENI, but was "humiliated" and rejected by Britain and the United States.

But Mattei was not discouraged. In 1955, a year before the British setback at Suez, Mattei successfully opened negotiations with Egypt's new nationalist leader Nasser. ENI obtained a part of the oil development in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. By 1961, it could obtain almost 2.5 million tons of crude oil per year. This is not a small amount. Most of the oil is refined by ENI's refinery, basically Satisfies Italy's growing demand for oil, all without having to pay in dollars. Mattei's real challenge to the major Anglo-American oil companies came in 1957 into Iran. In the spring of 1957, Mattei began negotiations with the Shah of Iran on an unprecedented arrangement.The terms of the deal are that the National Iranian Oil Company will get 75 percent of the total profits and ENI 25 percent in the newly formed joint venture SIRIP, which has a 25-year monopoly over Iran's 8,800 square miles of unallocated areas that may contain oil. mining rights."The Italians have gained another leg in the Middle East's oil-producing regions," said a senior British official.

The point of view in Washington and London is exactly the same as that of the Seven Sisters.If Mattei's behavior is not restrained, it may disrupt the oil order in the world.The standard agreement between Anglo-American Petroleum Corporation and developing countries is to share oil production 50-50, and manipulate the huge downstream profits.If Mattei is allowed to join the Seven Sisters, they fear companies in Belgium, Germany and some other countries will demand the same.Therefore, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom formally lodged a protest with Iran, demanding the suspension of cooperation with Mattei.

However, the protests were not immediate. In August 1957, Mattei and Iran reached a groundbreaking agreement.When talking about the potential of this contract, Mattei expressed his view that "the Middle East should now be the Midwest of industrialized Europe", marking his intention to let Europe help build the Middle East's industrial and technological infrastructure. first step. In March 1961, the first batch of ENI oil tankers docked at the port of Bari in Italy, bringing the first results of cooperation with the Iranians—18,000 tons of Persian Gulf crude oil.Mattei is also the first successful subsea oil extraction in the SIRIP joint venture, becoming a leader in this field.

Inside Italy, Mattei continued to put pressure on the Seven Sisters by adopting progressive price breaks for consumers and by convincing the Italian government to reduce exorbitant gasoline taxes.The direct result of this policy was that Anglo-American oil companies were forced to lower oil prices in Italy by 25% from 1959 to 1961, which was of great significance to Italy's first real economic recovery after the war. Abroad, Mattei continued to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, seeking out areas that Anglo thought were too small to attract attention. ENI and Mattei personally visited some of the newly independent countries in Africa and Asia to discuss development prospects that were very different from what these former colonies had heard before.

Mattei is also building local refineries in several countries, all of which are owned by those countries.That broke the Seven Sisters' monolithic hold on the most profitable refining business.Oil-producing countries are no longer just sources of raw material supplies, but are building modern local industries to process their own mineral resources.In turn, ENI has also received a stable return on investment in the country, it has also received a monopoly contract for the construction of oil refining facilities, and a unique world oil market. However, it was in October 1960 that Mattei's behavior caused great dissatisfaction at the White House, 10 Downing Street and the headquarters of the "Seven Sisters Company".The leader of the largest non-communist resistance in Italy and a staunch Christian democrat, went to Moscow.The Soviet Union's rich oil resources were once again at the center of European negotiations, as they had been at Rapallo in the 1920s.Moreover, Britain and the United States once again stood firmly on the opposite side of the negotiations, trying every means to prevent the success of the negotiations.

Since 1958, ENI has signed a contract with the Soviet Union to purchase a small amount of crude oil, less than 1 million tons per year.However, Westerners got rumors that in Moscow, between Mattei and Soviet Foreign Trade Minister Patorizchev, the plate was much bigger than this. On October 11, 1958, Mattei signed an agreement to purchase 2.4 million tons of oil from the Soviet Union each year for the next five years. In exchange, ENI ensured the expansion of the Soviet Union's oil export capacity to the West.The oil is no longer paid for in cash, but instead is delivered by a large-bore oil pipeline.This would help build a large network of pipelines to transport Soviet oil from the Volga-Urals to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary.When this network is completed, 15 million tons of Soviet crude oil can be transported to Eastern Europe every year, where it can be exchanged for industrial products and food needed by the Soviet Union.At that time, the Soviet Union urgently needed large-diameter oil pipelines, but lacked the necessary production capacity.

ENI is supported by the Italian government, and the state-owned Finside Group was commissioned to build a new steel plant in the southeastern Italian city of Taranto, producing 2 million tons of large-diameter steel pipes per year.The factory in Taranto was built quickly and production of pipes for the Soviet market began in September 1962. Italy can buy oil from the Soviet Union at an FOB price of US$1 per barrel, and the shipping location is the Black Sea. The price of oil of the same quality in Kuwait is US$1.59 per barrel, plus a shipping cost of US$0.69; at the beginning of 1960, in the United States The price is 2.75 US dollars / barrel.The Italian steel and chemical industry absorbed a large amount of labor and increased many job opportunities. Therefore, in Italy, the rumor that Mattei was an "underground communist" was hardly heard in the British and American press. Love traveling to Moscow".

On October 27, 1962, just a month after Finside's factory began producing oil pipelines for the Soviet Union, a private airline plane that Mattei was traveling in from Sicily to Milan crashed, killing all three people on board.In today's view, this incident is bound to cause speculation and will be regarded as an elaborate conspiracy. Matthew was 56 years old and at the height of his power. Thomas Karamesins, then the head of the CIA in Rome, has since left without explanation.He later played a role in Chile's military coup against Salvador Allende.Perhaps it was merely a coincidence that CIA Director John McCone owned more than 1 million shares of Standard Oil of California (Chevron) at the time of Mattei's death.The report on Mattei's death submitted by Karamesings on October 28, 1962 has never been made public, and the US government refused to provide it on the grounds of "related to national security".

Before his death, Mattei was already trying to win the right to build Italy's first experimental nuclear power plant, and established a new branch of ENI, ENEL, an ambitious company dedicated to developing the national power grid and very optimistic about it. State-owned power company for nuclear energy.In addition, in addition to the oil supply agreements with Iran, Egypt, and the Soviet Union, he also signed similar development agreements with Morocco, Sudan, Tanzania, Ghana, India, and Argentina. Writing about Mattei's death, the British financial weekly, The Economist of London (founded in the 1840s for the repeal of the Corn Laws and owned by Sir Cowdray of Royal Dutch Shell) made the following comments : No matter how good or bad he is for a long time to come, Mattei will be the subject of intense debate, a bit like Deterding (of Royal Dutch Shell) and a bit like Krüger (Switzerland). Financial expert, died inexplicably in 1943).In the world oil world or in Italy, where Mattei left his mark, it is difficult to compare him.His sudden departure has had a profound impact on the world oil market as well as Italy. The New York Times called him "the most important man in Italy" who contributed more to Italy's "postwar economic miracle" than any other Italian. Before his death, Mattei had been preparing for a trip to meet US President John F. Kennedy.President Kennedy was pressuring American oil companies to reach some form of détente with Mattei.The talks between Kennedy and Mattei did not materialize.One can only imagine the possibilities.Just a year later, President Kennedy was assassinated.Through a complex network of organized crime leads, the bloodstains all lead to the door of the US intelligence services.