Meloni pays tribute to Mattei as a “great Italian” who played a key role in transforming Italy into “an industrial and productive power”.
Italy marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Enrico Mattei, the industrialist widely regarded as a leading architect of the country’s post-war economic renaissance and founder of the national energy company ENI.
Born on 29 April 1906 in Acqualagna, in the central Marche region, Mattei began his career in industry in modest circumstances, working first as a painter in a metalwork factory and later as an apprentice at a tannery.
By the age of 30, he had founded the Industria Chimica Lombarda in Milan, a small chemical firm that eventually became a supplier to the Italian armed forces.
During the second world war, Mattei joined the Resistance as a partisan aligned with the Catholic formations, fighting in the mountains of the Marche and forging connections with future pillars of Italian politics, including Alcide De Gasperi and Ferruccio Parri.
In 1945, he was appointed as liquidating commissioner of AGIP, the state petroleum company created under the Fascist regime. Rather than winding it down, however, Mattei recognised its potential and moved to revive it, supported by the discovery of methane and oil deposits across northern Italy – notably at Cortemaggiore, in Emilia-Romagna, in March 1949.
In 1953, he became president of the newly created Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, or ENI for short, within which AGIP became a leading subsidiary.
Energy policy and geopolitics
During the 1950s, Mattei effectively shaped Italy’s energy policy, challenging the grip of the Anglo-American cartel known as the “Seven Sisters” – the group of dominant western oil companies – and striking independent supply agreements with Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Tunisia.
He offered oil-producing nations terms far more equitable than those typically on offer, pursuing a vision of shared development rather than extractive dominance.
Africa occupied a central place in his geopolitical outlook. Among the most ambitious projects he championed was the Tazama pipeline, a 1,700-kilometre conduit designed to transport oil from the refinery at Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, to the mining heartland of Zambia.
Today ENI has established itself as one of the world’s leading industrial groups, active not only in oil and gas but also in the energy transition.
Death
Mattei died on 27 October 1962 when the aircraft carrying him from Catania to Milan crashed near Bascapè, in the province of Pavia, killing him, his pilot Irnerio Bertuzzi, and American journalist William McHale.
The cause of his death has never been definitively established. An investigation by the Pavia prosecutor’s office, closed in 2003, confirmed the presence of an explosive device on board, but those responsible were never identified.
Theories have implicated both the Italian and American mafias – acting in conflict with the Seven Sisters – and the French far-right Organisation de l’Armée Secrète, which was violently opposing Algerian independence at the time.
Meloni’s tribute
Prime minister Giorgia Meloni issued a statement to mark the anniversary, hailing Mattei as one of the architects of the post-war economic miracle that made Italy an industrial and productive power.
“Mattei was one of the first to grasp Africa’s immense potential and to lay the foundations for cooperation based on authentic, equal and mutually beneficial relationships”, Meloni wrote, helping to usher in “a period of infrastructure investments on the African continent that are still bearing fruit today”.
She added that his teachings serve as a daily source of inspiration for her government’s work and invoked one of his maxims – “Ingenuity is seeing possibilities where others see none” – pledging to continue in that spirit as Italy pursues a new chapter in its relations with the African continent.
Controversy
The Meloni government chose Mattei’s name for its flagship Africa policy, the Mattei Plan, launched in January 2024, which establishes a new strategic partnership between Italy and African states.
The anniversary comes, however, amid a minor controversy: reports this week indicated that members of Mattei’s family have formally objected to the government’s use of their surname for the initiative, arguing the policies of the Meloni administration were not in line with his legacy.
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