Gela, Sicily. A view of the petrochemical by the oil wells area North of the town.
The Petrochemical of Gela covers an area of 300 hectares; it was born in 1961 by an idea of Enrico Mattei but his premature death put an end to the ambitious projects that were scheduled. After 50 years the plants are about to be closed because of their obsolescence and for the pollution they provoke. The industrial drains of half a century have created a series of cancerous pathologies, connected to the air pollution, in the local population.
Some workers in the oil field of "Cerro Falcone 3", in Calvello. Each of them belongs to different sub-contractors (Maersk, Expertise, Pergemine) as ENI only manages the oil once it has been extracted. In the center, Nicola Marotta, drilling supervisor for ENI.
A view of the IES oil refinery of Mantova. Crude oil that reaches the refinery comes from Syria, Egypt, Russia, Iran, Iraq from the Porto Marghera harbour and then through a 120 km long pipeline. In November 2007, IES was bought by the Hungarian company Mol.
The oil tanker belonging to Fabio, who drives twice a day from the Sarpom refinery of Trecate to the harbour of Genoa.
Giovanni Colla in his farming land close to Trecate (Novara), where in 1994 the explosion of an oil well caused one of the most severe oil-related accidents of Italy. ENI had refund him for the three years he could not work his fields.
Ortona, protest against the Galloway oil plant, property of the Mediterranean Oil and Gas company, set at just two kilometers from the coastline.
Tumarrano, Sicily. A flock of sheep near the oil platform "Casteltermini 1".
On Tumarrano zone, in the municipality of Cammarata, since October 2007 ENI set up a well where they are drilling researching for oil. For now they reached 2500 mt but they plan on arriving at 6000 mt. The major of Villalba, a municipality bordering the oil well, showed his concerns with a letter to the institutions for possible damages to the environment caused by the oil extraction.
In the oil hub of Viggiano, run by ENI and Shell. Here oil is separated from water and gasses, and sent to the refinery of Taranto.
Oil well near Cavone (Modena) belonging to the Italian oil company ENI.
Nowadays, most of the wells are connected to the oil hub through pipelines. Truck owners and drivers complain that ENI has never anticipated this scenario, and needed to reduce by 50% their fleet, but decresing the amount of trucks running through these winding roads helped cutting down the number of accidents. Nonetheless, a few hundred meters from here, an oil tanker broke into a house just a week before this photograph was taken.
Workers of the consortium of companies called COMMI that works for ENI in construction and restoration of oil wells and pipelines overlooking a restored areas inside the national park of Val d'Agri. Some 50 people work for the consortium, which will earn from ENI some 18 million euros.
The Sarpom refinery in Trecate (Novara), co-owned by ExxonMobil and ERG. The plan, built in 1948, is on the border with the Ticino Natural Reserve and produces about 7% of the oil derivates consumed every year in Italy.
Industrial area between Augusta and Priolo, Sicily. Vincenzo Genovese, pensioner, that has just picked up some potatoes, in a field cultivated over the remains of an archaeological zone, near the ESSO refinery.
In 1949 the Moratti family bought an old refinery in Texas, took it apart and transported by sea to Augusta where they set it up near Megara Hyblea, an archaeological site from the Magna Greece times. The biggest petrochemical pole was born: 40 km of coast with a very high concentration of industries and refineries. However many are the side effects of the presence of these industries: cancer mortality higher of about 30% (almost 34% in 1988); the birth every year of children with malformations; a continuous increase in sickness of the breathing apparatus; an average life span inferior of 5-6 years compared to the national average and remarkable quantities of mercury in the blood that goes back in the food chain.
Maintenance work in the IES refinery of Mantova, which opened in 1946. Crude oil that reaches the refinery comes from Syria, Egypt, Russia, Iran, Iraq from the Porto Marghera harbour and then through a 120 km long pipeline. In November 2007, IES was bought by the Hungarian company Mol.
Tumarrano, Sicily. Night view of the oil platform "Casteltermini 1".
On Tumarrano zone, in the municipality of Cammarata, since October 2007 ENI set up a well where they are drilling researching for oil. For now they reached 2500 mt but they plan on arriving at 6000 mt. The major of Villalba, a municipality bordering the oil well, showed his concerns with a letter to the institutions for possible damages to the environment caused by the oil extraction.
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