The natural gas industry in Italy

Abstract

The article examines the very remarkable developments of recent years in the Italian hydro-carbide industry in their main aspects. In the first part, dealing more especially with the problems of the production of natural gas and its cost, the author calls attention to the importance of this source of power - by far the cheapest available to Italy - both for internal economic expansion and as a means of reducing the deficit in her balance of trade. The second part of the article describes the recent reorganisation of the hydro-carbide industry, a reorganisation which was the outcome of long debates between the advocates of private and public ownership. The author states the reasons that induces the Government to chose, among the several possibilities open to them, the solution of exclusive government operation in the Valley of the Po; and he describes the principal characteristics of the new government holding unit, the E.N.I. (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), which now has supervision over all the government interests in that sector.

JEL: L71