(by Alfonso Di Leva) (ANSA) - TRIESTE - A story which dates back to 50 years ago and is 753 km long, starting in the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea (port of Trieste) and reaching the heart of Europe, in Bavaria: this is the Trans-Alpine pipeline owned and managed by Siot (Tal Group) which supplies every year Germany, Austria and Czech Republic with millions of tonnes of crude oil. Bavaria has managed to turn itself from a largely agricultural region into one of the areas with the strongest industrial development in Europe and among the Western Countries: this is also due to the energy continuosly supplied for half a century. Today the Siot pipeline - which was completed in just one thousand days (between December 9, 1964 and June 1967) - covers 90% of Austria's energy needs, 40% in Germany (100% in Bavaria) and 50% of the Czech Republic. Crude oil arrives in Trieste on board large oil tankers and then is stored in huge tanks before being pumped into the pipeline and transported to refineries in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, after crossing the Alps (1,600 above sea level), through three underground tunnels. More than 50 years have passed since April 13, 1967, when the first oil tanker, the "Daphnella", docked in the port of Trieste (the first crude oil supply reached Ingolsadt, Bavaria, on October 3). This story is proof of an international collaboration which was developed through significant stages: the consortium made up of 83 banks that supported the construction phase (worth about 192mn USD, one of the biggest private investments at that time), the sharing of strategic vision, industrial projects, technologies and engineering plans between dozens of people from different countries. The current shareholding structure of Tal Group is a cross-border consortium whose shareholders are some of the world's biggest and most profitable oil companies: OMV, Shell, Eni, BP, Rosneft, ExxonMobil, C-Blue Limited, MERO, Phillips 66/Jet Tankstellen and Total. (ANSA).