The exceptional international importance of the figure of Mattei obliges us to place his memory in the world arena. Globalization today is changing pace. It is no longer that linear path devoid of contradictions which was glimpsed after the fall of the Soviet empire, the quiet emergence of China as a counterweight power as imagined by Kissinger and the unfolding of the market which could not have lacked the construction of democracies where the market itself needed it most. And rReflecting on global geostrategy is essential to understand the distinctiveness of Enrico Mattei's work. The strategic choice of the world market is, for him, clear from the beginning of the creation of Eni. It is a policy aimed at the alliance with the producing countries. This is the originality and universality of Mattei's message. The oil and gas industry is unique in the world because an important part of its production process is destined to depletion: they are not irreversible resources, they are limited resources.
Furthermore: these resources as world history has unfolded, whether we like it or not, are the property of nation states. And today much more than it was in Mattei's time, when the majors still owned most of the world's reserves, unlike today, when about 80% of them are in the hands of the nation states. The majority of these states, especially in the immediate post-war period of the twentieth century, were either the Soviet Union which was a country with an economic regime different from the capitalist one, therefore with a statized and bureaucratized economy where political command over the economy was essential, or Developing countries – as they used to say at the time – dominated either by military castes or by semi-dictatorial regimes. Some of these countries were hit by that great liberating movement, at its beginnings, which was decolonization. Prominent examples: Algeria, Iran, Egypt, Libya.
Mattei understands that the essential issue for guaranteeing ENI, the "poor relation" among the majors, a competitive advantage was to create - thanks to those atypical foundations of the energy industry that I mentioned earlier - an organic link between producing countries and consuming countries . Eni had to create closer links between production, manufacturing and consumption, links that were not dictated by a policy of domination of the producing countries.
This is an idea, like all of Mattei's work, which owes much to international Catholic thought. The Vatican, moreover, was then an intellectual center of the highest order and one of the basic problems of Vatican policy was - as it is today, for that matter - that of preserving the Christian minorities in the Middle East. And this could only be done with a policy of peace, especially after the creation of the state of Israel which had unleashed conflicts in the Middle East and with countries bordering North Africa.
Mattei interprets this design. And thanks to this design and the political support that derives from it and which supports him and his energy policy aimed at acting in innovative revolutionary forms in the Middle Eastern international context, he powerfully co-defined Italy's foreign policy for a long time. This driving force continues today.
Mattei establishes the link between production, manufacturing and distribution thanks to the privileged contracts it stipulates with the producing countries, contracts which include the exchange of oil against essential services for the modernization of the producing countries. He supports Mossadek's revolution in Iran, is strongly connected to Nasser's Egypt, which becomes one of ENI's fundamental historical platforms. Eni would not exist without the stable alliance created over 40 years of tireless work in Egypt and with Egypt. As, moreover, in Libya, Angola and Congo and above all in Nigeria.
Mattei expresses a very modern entrepreneurial thought and action: he understands that an industry with those structural characteristics, I repeat, which I mentioned earlier, cannot act if it does not create stable and long-lasting relationships with the producing countries.
So ENI appeared as a different international player than usual. Why? Because he tries to break the international oil monopoly. There have been many legends about this, many historically false legends. One of these is the one that claims that this policy had, in the years in which Mattei operated, American companies as its main opponents. This assertion is the result of a colossal ignorance of the processes taking place in the Mediterranean after the Second World War, where we are witnessing a colossal change: British hegemony ends and North American hegemony begins thanks to the anti-colonial role that the USA plays in that historical context.
This change of perspective was well understood by Mattei and his outstanding strategic advisors in terms of intellectual stature. Mattei plays his cards and the clash is therefore very hard with the great European colonial powers. Italy pursues a different policy from the latter only thanks to the role played by ENI.
Ultimately Mattei pursues a procurement policy in areas with controlled political risk, but with certain mining development. In fact, it will do the same in the USSR, with its policy of long-term agreements which are still one of ENI's distinctive and vital features today. But making that choice in the times in which he lived and worked meant having extraordinary political and intellectual rather than entrepreneurial courage.
