Enrico Mattei was visiting Tunisia to explore the possibility of building an oil refinery. He was approached by one of the heads of the Seven Sisters who told him: “You will not build the refinery for Tunisia. We will build it.” Mattei replied: “Can we be the third party and build it together?” “No” was the reply.
Enrico Mattei, the founder of the Italian energy company ENI, turned towards the young colleague who was with him and told him: “Remember this conversation. Never forget it as it teaches you a lot about the arrogance of the powerful.” (L'arroganza dei potenti - Incontro con Enrico Mattei | Eni Video Channel, 1960).
The Seven Sisters consisted of Exxon, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil and Chevron from the United States and also British Petroleum from England. These companies dominated the world oil industry from the 1920s to the 1970s. Around 1950, the Seven Sisters controlled almost 98.3% of the oil market worldwide using Oligopoly market structures.
Mattei still got his way and built the refinery in 1961 despite the war waged against him by the Seven Sisters and their governments (UK, US, Netherlands, France and Belgium) wherever he went, not just Tunisia but also Morocco, Ghana and the Sudan among others in the Middle East, the Gulf and Africa.
Enrico Mattei managed to get a lot of contracts for ENI from such countries because he dealt with them as equals and respected those he dealt with as human beings and offered them 50/50 partnerships. He did not look down on them as a coloniser and as a predator. He believed in their resource sovereignty and that they had a right to their oil and to make as much money from it as possible instead of accepting the crumbs from the table of the Seven Sisters who always wanted to have a feast of the mineral resources of the countries they operated in.
After the Second World War, Mattei started showing his leadership qualities and enterprising spirit by building Italy’s oil and gas industry and eventually creating the Natural Hydrocarbons Agency – ENI – in 1953. The US government put pressure on the Italian government to stop him. But the Italian government resisted this pressure and Mattei survived, thanks to his reputation as an anti-fascist and as an honest and competent entrepreneur, together with his strong roots in the Christian Democratic Party.
He built ENI into a leader in oil and gas related fields such as exploration, refining, oil and gas pipes, distribution networks, oil drilling equipment and petrochemicals.
Further pressure was brought on the Italian government to stop Mattei expanding ENI’s operations into the Middle East, the Gulf and Africa. But Italy, especially through politicians like Christian Democrat Aldo Moro, wanted to build new relations with the Mediterranean, the Arab world and Africa. Although accepted within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Italy was ready not to be constrained totally by the Cold War bloc logic of the United States against the Soviet Union.
Its political, economic and energy role in the oil and gas rich countries in the Arab world and Africa was seen with suspicion by the West.
Mysterious deaths
In her 2019 study for LUISS University ‘Enrico Mattei and Aldo Moro: Shaping the Mediterranean Détente in the Cold War’, Sara Onofri states: “The US limited and criticized several Italian initiatives and hampered the Euro-Arab dialogue. As a Super Power in the Cold War, the US interfered in any initiative that could jeopardize the American primacy in dealing with those contended and vulnerable areas. Indeed, according to the US, Mediterranean Détente between the West and the Middle Eastern and North African countries was no longer possible if led by Italy.”
Despite this, Enrico Mattei and Aldo Moro persevered in trying to build the Mediterranean and African Detente with Mattei focussing on energy and economic relations while Moro developed dialogue with the Mediterranean, the Arab world and Africa.
Onofri considers both Mattei and Moro as believing that it was in the interest of Italy to have an autonomous foreign policy, reaping the benefits of decolonization and distancing it from the short-sighted western policies in the Mediterranean, the Suez Crisis, and also the Seven Sisters aggressive policy. Italy was ready to support the process of decolonization by giving countries assistance in managing their own resources to foster economic development and political independence.
Mattei and Moro helped Italy to build effective dialogues with the Mediterranean, the Arab World and Africa defying the logic of spheres of influence and showing an alternative to economic colonialism. Their commitment to this approach was considered too bold and too insubordinate for their own good.
Both were killed in tragic and mysterious circumstances that still raise many questions that remain unanswered: Mattei in a plane crash (27 October 1962) and Moro kidnapped and murdered (9 May 1978) by the terrorist group the Red Brigades. Were they killed by those who were unhappy with their politics: Mattei for taking on the Seven Sisters and Moro for his going ahead and reaching a historic compromise between the Christian Democratic Party and the Italian Communist Party that had broken free from Moscow?
Three years before, in Helsinki on 1 August 1975 President George Ford and State Secretary Henry Kissinger met Prime Minister Aldo Moro and Foreign Minister Mariano Rumor. Both Ford and Kissinger told Moro: “ … we don't care if they (the Italian Communists) sign onto NATO in blood. Having the communists in the Government of Italy would be completely incompatible with continued membership in the Alliance. There is a difference between an election tactic and reality. There is no way that we can be persuaded to be in an Alliance with governments including communists which is supposed to be against communism, no matter what you say.”
(DECLASSIFIED S,O. J2958, Sec. 3.5 US NSC Memo, J1124198, State Dept. Guidelines).
"We had conclusive evidence that Enrico was killed," Mattei's nephew Angelo declared to a newspaper, "on Dec. 9, 1962, when private experts told us that they found traces of explosive on the plane relics."
Raffaele Morini, who was part of the anti-fascist group led by Enrico Mattei when the resistance war started against Mussolini’s regime and a representative of the Mattei family in its attempts to discover whether Mattei’s plane had a bomb on it, has asked: were Mattei and Moro killed by “those who wanted to keep dominating international diplomacy (and arrogance) and promoted destabilization, through intrigues and terrorist acts? … It could be that the same mind desired their suppression, the same hands enrolled the terrorists.”