Enrico Mattei facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Enrico Mattei
Chairman of Eni
In office 10 February 1953 – 27 October 1962
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Marcello Boldrini
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 8 May 1948 – 24 June 1953
Constituency	Milan
Personal details
Born	29 April 1906 Acqualagna, Italy
Died	27 October 1962(1962-10-27) (aged 56) Bascapè, Italy
Cause of death	Aircrash ,Bomb
Political party	Christian Democracy
Occupation	Public administrator
Known for	Development of oil industry in Italy

Enrico Mattei (born April 29, 1906 – died October 27, 1962) was an important Italian public administrator. After World War II, he was given a big job: to close down Italy's state-owned oil company, Agip. But Mattei had other plans. Instead of closing it, he made it much larger and stronger, turning it into a new company called the National Fuel Trust (ENI).

Under Mattei's leadership, ENI made important oil deals in the Middle East. He also signed a big trade agreement with the Soviet Union. These actions helped to challenge the control of the "Seven Sisters", which were the major oil companies at the time. Mattei also introduced a new idea: the country that owned the oil should get 75% of the profits. This was a much fairer deal for those countries.

Mattei became a very powerful person in Italy. He was a member of the Christian Democracy party and served in the Italian Parliament from 1948 to 1953. ENI became so strong that people called it "the state within the state." Mattei died in a plane crash in 1962. It is believed a bomb caused the crash, but no one was ever officially blamed for his death. His unsolved death was even featured in a movie called The Mattei Affair. Many people remember him as one of Italy's best managers of the 20th century.

Enrico Mattei's Early Life

Enrico Mattei was born in Acqualagna, Italy, on April 29, 1906. He was the second of five children. His father was a carabiniere, which is a member of Italy's national police force.

In 1923, when he was 17, Mattei started working as an apprentice in a tannery in Matelica. A tannery is a place where animal hides are turned into leather. He learned quickly and became a chemical assistant. By age 21, he was the chief of the laboratory. After serving in the military, he became the tannery owner's main assistant. However, a tough economic time in the late 1920s caused the tannery to close.

Mattei then moved to Milan. There, he worked as a sales representative for companies that sold dyes and solvents for tanning and textiles. In 1934, he started his own company, Industria Chimica Lombarda. Two years later, in 1936, he got married to Greta Paulas in Vienna. He also studied accounting and enrolled at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

In May 1943, Mattei joined anti-Fascist groups in Milan. These groups were against the Italian Fascist government led by Benito Mussolini. After Mussolini was forced to resign in July 1943, Mattei joined a group of partisans in the mountains. He helped them by providing weapons. Even though he had been a member of the Fascist party before, he was trusted by the resistance. He mainly helped with organizing and managing activities.

Mattei's skills impressed the Christian Democrats, who put him in charge of their partisan forces. In October 1944, he was captured in Milan. But he managed to escape in December 1944, possibly by causing a short circuit. Mattei played a role in the military command of the National Liberation Committee in Northern Italy. He was even honored by the United States with the Silver Star medal.

Building Italy's Energy Future: Agip and ENI

In 1945, Enrico Mattei was put in charge of Agip, which was Italy's national oil company. The instructions were to close it down quickly. But Mattei had a different idea. He worked very hard to rebuild the company and make it one of Italy's most important businesses.

In 1949, Mattei made a surprising announcement. He said that the Po Valley in Northern Italy had a lot of oil and methane gas. He claimed Italy would soon have enough energy from its own land. He told the Italian press that the country, which was still recovering from World War II, would become rich. Agip's value quickly grew on the stock market. The company, owned by the state but run like a private business, became very strong and important. In reality, only a small amount of oil was found, but there was a good amount of methane gas.

Mattei's plan was to use this natural gas to help Italy's industries grow in the north. This helped power the "Italian economic miracle" after the war. The gas was not just a replacement for imported oil. It was a cheaper and better choice than imported coal, which growing factories needed. The money made from selling natural gas was used to find more gas, produce it, build more pipelines, and get new customers.

Agip was given the special right to search for gas and oil in Italy. It could also keep the profits. Some politicians and business leaders disagreed with Mattei's methods. He was known for using Agip's money to influence politicians and journalists. He famously said about political parties: "I use them like I would use a taxi: I sit in, I pay for the trip, I get out." Agip soon controlled many companies across different industries in Italy. Mattei also paid close attention to the news and even owned several newspapers.

In 1953, a new law created ENI, which stood for Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi. Agip became part of ENI. Mattei was first its president, then also its administrator and general director. People often said that ENI was Mattei, and Mattei was ENI.

Mattei's Global Impact

As Italy's need for energy grew, Mattei realized that the country would need oil from other nations. He wanted ENI to be as big and important as the world's largest oil companies. So, he looked to international oil markets. He often told a story about a little cat trying to eat from a pot with big dogs. He said, "We Italians 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 story made Mattei very popular in Italy, which was not very rich at the time. This popularity helped him gain political support. To challenge the control of the "Seven Sisters" (a term he invented for the big oil companies), Mattei made deals with poorer countries in the Middle East and countries from the former Eastern Bloc.

In 1959, Mattei visited Moscow and made a deal to import oil from the Soviet Union. This happened during the Cold War, and the United States and NATO strongly protested. Mattei also supported countries that wanted independence from colonial powers. This helped ENI make deals in places like Algeria after they gained freedom. When people said he was helping Communists or making Italy dependent on the Soviet Union, Mattei replied that he simply bought from the cheapest sources.

Mattei made agreements with Tunisia and Morocco. He offered them a 50-50 partnership for extracting their oil. This was very different from the deals usually offered by major oil companies. For Iran and Egypt, he even offered to take all the risk in searching for oil. If no oil was found, those countries would not have to pay anything. By 1957, ENI was competing with huge companies like Esso and Shell. It was even rumored that Mattei secretly helped fund the independence movement against France in the Algerian War.

In 1960, after his deal with the Soviet Union and while talking with China, Mattei publicly said that the American control over oil was ending. He was invited to discuss sharing oil exploration areas in the Sahara Desert. But Mattei said he would only agree if Algeria became independent. Because of his strong stance, Mattei was seen as a target by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a French far-right group that was against Algeria's independence. They started sending him threats.

The Mystery of Mattei's Death

On October 27, 1962, Enrico Mattei was flying from Catania, Sicily, to the Milan Linate Airport. His small jet plane crashed near the village of Bascapè in Lombardy. The reason for the crash has always been a mystery. There are strong signs that a bomb hidden in the plane caused the accident. All three people on board died: Mattei, his pilot Irnerio Bertuzzi, and American journalist William McHale. Official investigations at the time said it was an accident.

During his time leading ENI, Mattei had made many powerful enemies. The U.S. National Security Council even called him an "irritation" and an "obstacle" in a secret report from 1958. The French were angry with him for dealing with the Algerian independence movement. People have blamed Mattei's death on the CIA, the French OAS, and even the Sicilian Mafia.

In 1995, the human remains of Mattei and his pilot were dug up. Metal pieces that had been bent by an explosion were found in their bones. Some people think that a bomb was set off by the plane's landing gear. In 1994, the investigations into his death were reopened. In 1997, more analysis showed signs of an explosion. Because of this evidence, a judge reclassified the case as a homicide, meaning a murder, but the person or people responsible are still unknown.

Mattei did not fully trust Italy's secret service. So, he created his own personal security team. This team was made up of former partisans and ENI staff who he felt protected him.

Theories About Mattei's Death

One theory suggests that agents from the French secret service (SDECE) were responsible for the plane crash. They believed Mattei was about to take over French oil interests in Algeria. It is said that a French agent tampered with Mattei's aircraft.

When director Francesco Rosi was preparing his film The Mattei Affair in 1970, he asked journalist Mauro De Mauro to investigate Mattei's last days in Sicily. De Mauro found an audio-tape of Mattei's last speech. Eight days after finding the tape, on September 16, 1970, De Mauro disappeared without a trace. His body was never found. Later, several police investigators who searched for De Mauro were killed, including General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa and Boris Giuliano, who were both killed by the Mafia.

Tommaso Buscetta, an important Mafia member who became an informant, said that the Sicilian Mafia was involved in Mattei's murder. According to Buscetta, Mattei was killed because his policies were hurting important American business interests in the Middle East. He also said that journalist De Mauro was killed in 1970 because his investigation into Mattei's death was getting too close to the truth. These statements led to new investigations, including digging up Mattei's body.

Admiral Fulvio Martini, who later led Italy's military secret service, stated that Mattei's plane was shot down. In 1986, former Italian Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani described the accident as a shooting. He called it perhaps the first act of terrorism in Italy.

Mattei's Lasting Impact

Enrico Mattei is a very important and sometimes debated figure in Italy's 20th-century history. He made ENI a very powerful company, so much so that Italians called it "the state within the state." Some people see him as a hero who fought for his country. Others point to his strong desire for power and his clever, calculating nature.

Mattei was the one who created the term "Seven Sisters" to describe the major oil companies that controlled the world's oil in the mid-20th century. In 2000, a natural gas pipeline called the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline was named after Mattei. This pipeline carries natural gas from Algeria, through Tunisia and Sicily, to mainland Italy.

ENI also named a research institute after Mattei. The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) is a research group that studies how to achieve sustainable development and improve global governance. Its goal is to help make better decisions in both public and private areas.

See also

In Spanish: Enrico Mattei para niños