Mattei, Enrico

Mattei, Enrico
(1906–1962)
   Enrico Mattei was founder and head of the great oil and natural gas multinational, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi(ENI). He was born in the Marches, the son of a police officer. He left school at 15 and, after working in a tannery, went to Milan as a salesman of German industrial equipment. Before 1940, he established his own chemical company. After 1945, he became prominent in the Democrazia Cristiana/Christian Democracy Party (DC). After the war, he was put in charge of the moribund agency that had been established under the Fascists, Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli (AGIP). Mattei transformed AGIP by the intensive exploitation of the methane gas discovered in the Po Valley a few years after the war. The appetite of private firms was whetted by the prospect of abundant cheap energy, but Mattei, aided considerably by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, succeeded in ensuring that all Po Valley natural gas exploitation would be under the control of ENI, created for this purpose in February 1953. A financial buccaneer, Mattei managed to build an empire in the next decade that created such spin-offs as petrochemicals, motels, restaurants, steel oil-ducts, construction contracting, textiles, nuclear power, and research. His accomplishments required cutting through the bureaucratic “red tape” of Italy’s patrimonial tradition, and Mattei was not always scrupulous in his methods. Mattei’s willingness to offer Arab oil producers terms far more favorable than those of the Anglo-American “Seven Sisters” made him many foreign enemies. At his bidding, Italy also became a big buyer of Soviet gas from the mid-1950s onward. His support for the Algerian independence movement led to his execution being ordered by the Organisation Armee Secrete/Secret Army Organization (OAS), the private army of French settlers who took up arms against France to induce the government to keep Algeria French. It is no exaggeration to say that Mattei was conducting his own de facto foreign policy by the end of the 1950s. In October 1962, his private airplane crashed on a flight from Sicily to Milan. The mafia, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the international oil cartel, and the OAS were all accused of having caused his death in the press, in novels, and in films (such as Il Caso Mattei by Francesco Rosi, 1972).

Historical Dictionary of Modern Italy. . 2007.

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  • Mattei, Enrico — ▪ Italian businessman born April 29, 1906, Acqualagna, Italy died Oct. 27, 1962, Rose       international businessman and politically powerful head of Italy s Eni SpA (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi; “State Hydrocarbons Authority”), which had… …   Universalium

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  • Enrico Mattei — (* 29. April 1906 in Acqualagna bei Pesaro, Italien; † 27. Oktober 1962 in Bascapè, Italien) war ein italienischer Manager an der Spitze der Eni und der bekannteren Agip Petroli SpA, den italienischen Erdölgesellschaften. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Mattei — ist ein italienisches Adelsgeschlecht, siehe Mattei (Adelsgeschlecht) Mattei oder Mattéi ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Alessandro Mattei (1744–1820), italienischer Kardinal der Katholischen Kirche Bruno Mattei (1931–2007),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mattei — can refer to: Places: Mattei, California Noble families: Mattei (Rome), noble Roman family Marquis Mattei, noble Maltese family People: Bruno Mattei, Italian movie director Enrico Mattei, Italian public administrator who created ENI Fernando… …   Wikipedia

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  • Enrico — is an Italian male given name, derived from Heinrich of Germanic origin. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri (French), Enrique (Spanish), and Henrique (Portuguese).Enrico may refer to:* Enrico IV , a play * Enrico Marini (… …   Wikipedia

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