Western Europe: The Alpian Way

Not since Hannibal brought his elephants over the Alps to defeat the Romans in 218 B.C. had anyone attempted a mountain-hurdling task so complicated. In freezing temperatures and four-foot snowdrifts near the northern Italian town of Paluzza last week, workers prepared to blast out a tunnel for a 40-in. pipeline that will connect the port of Trieste with refineries in West Germany. The pipeline will require nearly four miles of tunnels, but most of its journey will have to be made, like Hannibal’s, across the frozen peaks and deep valleys of the Alps. Scheduled to begin operating in 1967, the $150 million, 300-mile Trans-Alpine Line will eventually carry more than 40 million tons of crude oil annually. It will be the biggest to date in an expanding network of pipeline that is pouring oil from the wells of the Sahara and the Middle East into the world’s fastest-growing petroleum market.

Under Land & Sea. Another new pipeline, a 546-mile Central Europe network that will carry 12 million tons of crude oil across the Alps from Genoa to Switzerland and Germany, is near completion. It climbs to a maximum height of 6,480 ft., snakes through seven mountain tunnels, makes 85 river crossings on its own bridges and has special equipment to reduce the tremendous oil pressures that would otherwise build up on its steep declines. In Germany, construction will begin this year on a large petroleum products pipeline between Cologne and Frankfurt, and a German consortium will soon start building a $125 million natural-gas pipeline from the Dutch border to Bavaria. France’s third petroleum products pipeline between Le Havre and Paris is nearing completion, and three similar lines are planned between other French cities. Plans are even being made to lay pipelines across the floor of the Mediterranean to carry natural gas from fields in Algeria directly into the European network.

Both the Trans-Alpine and the Central Europe pipelines—Western Europe’s largest current pipeline projects —were initiated by Ente Nazionale Id-rocarburi, the government-controlled Italian oil combine that owns refineries and distribution systems worth $1.85 billion on four continents. Despite its aggressive line drives, ENI has been plagued by problems that have delayed completion of many of its projects and dropped its annual earnings from $10 million to $400,000. Financially pressed, ENI last year was forced to accept ten oil companies as partners in the Trans-Alpine Line—ending forever its dream of monopolizing the Alpine pipelines to squeeze other big oil companies out of Central Europe. In return, it got 20-year commitments from Esso, Shell and British Petroleum to pump 4,000,000 tons of crude oil annually through its Central Europe line.

Pollution & Politics. Building transalpine pipelines poses mountain-size—and at times hill-size—problems. Unexpected construction problems and disputes with Swiss authorities over routing changes have put ENI behind schedule on the Central Europe pipeline. A 342-mile branch is still lying idle because the German town of Lindau refuses to allow the construction of a five-mile segment along the shore of Lake Constance. Reason: fear that the pipe might burst and spew oil into the lake, polluting the town’s water supply. The new Trans-Alpine project has already encountered its first delay. Indecisive elections have left San Dorligo, a town near Trieste, without a municipal government. Until a new one is formed, nobody can grant a permit for the construction of a project important to the Trans-Alpine Line: the San Dorligo oil storage depot.