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GEOREF RECORD

The history of the upstream oil and gas industry in Italy

Ferdinando Franco Cazzini
The history of the upstream oil and gas industry in Italy (in History of the European oil and gas industry, J. Craig (editor), F. Gerali (editor), F. MacAulay (editor) and R. Sorkhabi (editor))
Special Publication - Geological Society of London (April 2018) 465 (1): 243-274

Abstract

The aim of this work is to provide a synthetic history of the Italian upstream oil and gas industry, from its early start until today. Among European countries, Italy has one of the richest abundance of evidence of hydrocarbon seepages. The populations that have inhabited the country during the various historical periods took advantage of these phenomena, harvesting oil and bitumen from the surface. A testimony of such activity is an ingot of purified bitumen dated as first century AD found in central Italy. In the nineteenth century, seepages attracted the interest of oil companies that began to explore the Apennines. The drilling of the first modern oil well was realized in 1860 near Ozzano (Parma). The first onshore seismic reflection survey was acquired in 1940. The well Caviaga-1 was drilled in 1944 near Milan, discovering a gas field of 12.5 Bcm. It was one of the major European gas fields and it marked the starting point of the modern Italian petroleum industry. The widespread use of seismic reflection triggered an intense period of exploration. The first material oil discoveries were Ragusa (in 1954) and Gela (in 1956), both in Sicily. By the mid-1950s, the first offshore seismic survey started in the Adriatic Sea. In 1959, the drilling of well Gela 21, the first offshore well in Europe, boosted further exploration possibilities. During the following decades, the level of exploration and production (E&P) activities remained high, while from the beginning of the third millennium there has been a general slowdown. Since 2007, the level of exploration drilling has dropped to under 10 wells per year. In 2014, this negative trend was further confirmed with no exploratory wells drilled. The causes of this decline derive from the exploration maturity of the biogenic gas play and from the heavy bureaucratic processes involved in obtaining authorization. However, the main cause is probably the strong opposition from environmentalist associations to any kind of petroleum activities.


ISSN: 0305-8719
Coden: GSLSBW
Serial Title: Special Publication - Geological Society of London
Serial Volume: 465
Serial Issue: 1
Title: The history of the upstream oil and gas industry in Italy
Title: History of the European oil and gas industry
Author(s): Cazzini, Ferdinando Franco
Author(s): Craig, J.editor
Author(s): Gerali, F.editor
Author(s): MacAulay, F.editor
Author(s): Sorkhabi, R.editor
Affiliation: University of Pavia, Department of Environment and Earth Sciences, Pavia, Italy
Pages: 243-274
Published: 20180411
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of London, London, United Kingdom
References: 12
Accession Number: 2018-037325
Categories: Economic geology, geology of energy sources
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. sect., sketch maps
N36°30'00" - N47°30'00", E06°30'00" - E19°00'00"
Source Note: Online First
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2019, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data from The Geological Society, London, London, United Kingdom
Update Code: 201820
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