Mattarella,Meloni recall Mattei on 60th anniversary of death

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - President Sergio Mattarella and Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday remembered state oilman Enrico Mattei on the 60th anniversary of the Eni founder's still-mysterious death in a plane crash.
    Mattarella said that Mattei, who forged petroleum independence against the 'Seven Sisters' dominating world oil production, had been a "builder of the Republic" in setting up Italian fuels giant Eni and spurring production in Italy and abroad.
    Meloni recalled Mattei as a ""great Italian who made Italy into a power" on the world industrial scene.
    She said he "promoted a new strategic and industrial vision based on progress, on mutual growth and collaboration between Nations".
    Marche-born Mattei (1906-1962) organized Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Eni) fuel company after World War II, and negotiated oil deals with Iran and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
    Italy's best-known Mafia informant, the late Tommaso Buscetta, claimed the headline-grabbing Eni boss was killed to stop him treading on the toes of the so-called Seven Sisters of world oil.
    Mattei is known to have angered the world's biggest oil companies by forging his deals in North Africa, Russia and Iran that aimed to make Italy independent of them.
    An investigation into the northern Italian plane crash that killed him on October 27, 1962 concluded it had been caused by a technical fault but another probe, 30 years later, said a bomb had exploded on board.
    Investigative journalist Mauro De Mauro was allegedly killed by the Mafia in 1970 because he was about to publish evidence Mattei had been killed by the Mob.
    De Mauro went missing from the street outside his Palermo home on September 16, 1970, while doing research for Francesco Rosi's landmark movie, 'Il Caso Mattei' (The Mattei Case).
    Late Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore 'the Beast' Riina was twice acquitted of ordering De Mauro's murder. (ANSA).