Ente Nazionale Idrocarboni

Italian oil company that sought access to Algeria's oil industry.

Ente Nazionale Idrocarboni, a multistate petroleum company, was headed by Enrico Mattei. Mattei promised both arms and money to Algeria's Front de Libération Nationale (FLN; National Liberation Front) during the Algerian War of Independence (1954 - 1962) in return for unspecified future access to the oil and natural gas supplies discovered in Algeria's Saharan region. Mattei's private plane crashed under mysterious circumstances in October 1962, and Algeria nationalized its oil and gas industry after independence.

— DIRK VANDEWALLE