A story of two men and the beginning of the Italian oil industry

This is a short story which could be summarized in a few short chapters starting with the enterprise of Henry Salvatori, a young Italian emigrant in the USA, followed by the birth and development of the oil industry in Italy, and then, by the key decision of Enrico Mattei not to liquidate AGIP after the Second World War. Destinies, as usual, become entwined and, even in a story as short as this, part of the plot must be the role played by Salvatori’s seismic endeavours in persuading Enrico Mattei to make the decision which ensured the growth of AGIP into the company we know today. The story tellers are Franco di Cesare and Francesco Guidi, who both worked at AGIP.