Italian dash for oil sounds rural alarm

Empty deserts conceal the oil wealth of the Middle East, and frozen wastelands cover Russia’s. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Basilicata in southern Italy, Europe’s largest onshore oilfield lies beneath forests, farmland and ancient communities.

Wolves, deer and the occasional bear wander through mountain ranges designated as a national park, where clattering oil rigs rise incongruously through tree-tops.
Trenches carved through oak and beech take pipelines down to a complex in Viggiano where gas is separated and the oil piped a further 130km to a refinery. A sulphurous stench writhes up to medieval hilltop villages where shuttered windows and crumbling masonry testify to a population in flight. Not surprisingly, environmentalists and residents are alarmed by the plans of oil companies – Eni, Total, Shell and Exxon Mobil – to double production from this highly profitable field and supply some 10 per cent of Italy’s total oil needs within several years.

Activists campaigned for 15 hard years to establish the Val D’Agri area as a national park. The legislation finally came into effect last March, forbidding mineral extraction. In the meantime Eni, Italy’s part state-owned energy giant, had already built half a dozen wellheads inside the park and more outside.

Concerns were heightened this month when Stefania Prestigiacomo, environment minister and industrialist, rejected the regional government’s choice for park guardian and appointed her own commissioner.

Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government is also preparing legislation that would strip regions like Basilicata of their veto power over infrastructure plans. The goal is to fix Italy’s “nimby” – not in my backyard – reputation among foreign investors.

Financial Times Deutschland