La via del petrolio (1967–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Attraverso l'Europa - full transcript
In the last century,
industry developed near coalfields.
In proximity to iron and coal,
the nail factories, foundries
and mechanized mills
of the industrial revolution thrived.
Today, industries gravitate
to where oil arrives:
springing up in centres,
no longer black with soot,
for the production of light metals,
artificial fibres
and 5,000 other products
of the new oil chemistry.
But Europe does not produce oil,
it must import 90%
of the crude oil it consumes.
To propel it from the ports
to the continent's heart
where the refineries are located,
oil requires its own routes.
These routes are called pipelines.
EPISODE THREE
ACROSS EUROPE
Vertical Genoa.
Vertigo, air, steps.
Multicoloured Genoa,
flags of tow-boats.
Just glimpsed Genoa...
Bricks, gravel, rocks.
Dockside Genoa,
transatlantic,
netting.
Seaport Genoa, Chinese,
guttural.
Heartache, cliffs,
Oil tanker Genoa.
The tankers leave for the East again,
their huge tanks empty.
They've entrusted the product
to pipes
that convey it
to Genoa's coastal depot.
The underground river starts here,
linking Genoa with Switzerland,
Austria and Bavaria.
For 365 days and nights,
18 million tons of oil,
extracted from the hot earth of Asia
and Africa, go back to the earth.
Here's our last view
of the pipeline.
It will disappear underground,
an iron-clad river,
pumped, measured, controlled,
obedient to valves, filters and
pumps regulated by electronic brains.
Everything okay?
Is the suction valve open?
Is the suction valve open?
Serena?
We're ready to go.
We're starting with P2.
The Genoa-Europe pipeline's
first leg
is 85 Km long:
a mix of mountains and plains,
fires and Apennine chestnuts,
poplars and maize of the Po Valley.
At Sannazzaro de'Burgondi
in the province of Pavia,
the Eni pipeline
breaks into two branches.
One goes west for 250 Km
to Martigny in Switzerland,
the other goes east for 650 Km
to Ingolstadt in Bavaria,
between MEC and COMECON.
The Eni refinery
is one of Europe's biggest,
and is first
to make use of
the crude oil sent from Genoa.
The start of a new day,
a small airport.
A Viscount arrives from Rome.
I don't exactly know
which one you are,
but I know you're here
amongst the others.
Introduce yourself.
My name's Mario.
Here I am in the Italy of the '60s.
I've come from Latin America
to do a story on a pipeline
that crosses Europe.
The mysteries of journalism!
What's the distance
between Turin and Chivasso?
Turin to Chivasso
is about 15 kilometres.
15 kilometres?
Unbelievable: sunshine in Turin
but rain in Rome for 10 days.
It's really funny...
it's like springtime here!
- You're not from Turin, are you?
- No, Milan.
Lombardy is more beautiful.
Greener?
You must have relatives
in Argentina, right?
No, plenty of friends
who are there for work...
There's a huge oil pipeline...
- Almost 2,000 Km long.
- So you know.
Just what exactly is there
here at Chivasso?
At Chivasso we have
a pumping station.
It's the pipeline
that comes from Genoa...
Listen, these 15 Km
seem like 80, huh?
-80?
- We're going very slowly.
Seeing as there's no greenery
in Patagonia...
everyone paints
their houses green...
There's green everywhere,
it's nostalgia for greenery.
Good evening, Prof. Gavani?
- I'm Mario Greco, the journalist.
- I was expecting you.
Sorry I'm late...
- What's it called, this...
- Chivasso.
- No, this...
It's the pipeline's pumping station.
Here are the traps:
this is where the oil arrives.
- This is the arrival trap.
- What about that one?
That's where it departs.
This is where the "pig"
is received from Ferrera.
- What's the “pig"?
- A separator.
- You know what it means in English?
-Yes, I do!
- Here are two “pigs".
- These are they?
- Exactly.
- What do they do?
This one separates
two different batches of product.
That one cleans the pipe.
See the steel brushes?
They scrape out the pipe
and remove...
the paraffin, all the sediment
that the oil leaves...
- What's that?
- The surge drum.
Come on, Bianca!
I'm Emilian.
- Emilian?
- From Modena.
- Worked here for long?
- Five years.
- Isn't it a bit dull?
- No.
There's always something
to dismantle, see or learn.
Isn't it lonely?
A bit, but not that much.
Bianca, come here!
Know what it reminds me of?
"Red Desert".
Have you seen that film?
Don't you think there's
something similar in this...
No, why?
We're isolated out here, but...
You're not neurotic
like the characters in the film?
No, absolutely not!
Bianca, come here!
I thought there'd be
a big work force here.
No, it's all automatic.
All automatic... it's a brain.
Come this way.
This is the beginning and the end
of the pump station.
This is the arrival valve
for the oil coming from Ferrera.
- From Ferrera?
- Yes.
And that's the departure valve
going to Aosta.
- To Aosta?
- Yes.
That's where
the next pump station is located.
They pump the oil up to Etroubles
and then it goes to a Swiss refinery.
There are two:
this one and that one...
First encounter with the pipe,
the pigs, filters, valves.
I get it,
the oil can't get up the mountains
by itself
and these machines give it a shove.
In the pumping station's
meter room,
Mario wondered if he'd bought
enough woollens in Rome.
He was headed for snowy climes.
These are all over the place,
what are they?
They're seals.
Customs make us seal...
Customs insist the pipeline
is sealed at all points
where it would be possible
to extract oil.
No one can get at the oil...
Not without breaking the seal,
and that'd get you into trouble.
The snow in Aosta was different
from the stuff Mario
remembered seeing
on the cordillera of the Andes.
He thought the city snow smelled.
And it turned yellow right away.
Now I'll show you
the pipeline's route
beyond Aosta.
It's complicated.
Here, it starts out from Aosta,
from the south of Aosta...
The entrance to the Val D'Aosta
was so harrow
that the Ancient Romans cut away
the rock to make a road.
The pipeline uses
the same gorges and passages.
Then it continues and crosses
this road again
till it reaches the pump station
at Etroubles.
Isn't there a risk of freezing
at this temperature?
No, it can even cope
with lower ones,
because the pipeline runs
2 metres underground.
It's not really affected
by external temperatures.
It's hard working here,
how many years did they take...
- About a year and a half...
- A year and a half?
Including the building
of the stations...
- Did many people work on it?
- 250, 300 workers.
Listen...
they must have used
some really heavy equipment?
Big tractors, bulldozers,
diggers...
especially for digging out
the pipe route.
A bit like...
Hannibal's campaign.
An updated version, let's say...
1962-style.
This chamber is...
a breakout tank.
It's needed in case
there's an inundation,
or if a fault develops,
like a break in the pipe.
It's needed to drain off the product
and separate
the uphill and downhill flows.
It's a small concentration camp.
- That church is lovely.
- It's the village of Gignod.
- All French names...
- Well, we're in the Val d'Aosta!
The pipeline is a simple
but revolutionary idea,
like the Roman aqueduct.
The liquid, flowing on itself,
moves on its own.
The pipe runs underground.
Above it is the snow,
above the snow there's the road,
and above that there's me
as I follow the pipe.
My relationship to the pipe
starts to feel some weariness.
I fall asleep and dream
of an uneventful world
and a car suspended
in the afternoon.
I dream of myself dreaming
a few magic images...
"cinematomagic" ones...
like "Les enfants terribles”,
"Blood of a Poet".
A snowplough bumps into me.
Disorientated, I wake up
in an unfamiliar car
in an unfamiliar place.
Excuse me, please...
have you seen someone else?
He was driving an AGIP car.
- What time is it?
- Around five.
- What's this place called?
- Etroubles.
- A hamlet of Etroubles.
- But that's near to...
- How far is the border?
- 20 kilometres.
Twenty?
Is there a hotel
where I can eat?
There's a public house...opposite.
- That one? Is it open?
- Yes.
Fine. Thanks a lot.
Engineers, surveyors, assessors,
repairers, watchmen for the pipeline,
where are you hiding?
They've abandoned me.
Excuse me, there was someone else
here, haven't you seen them...
driving an AGIP car?
Engineer?
Engineer?
Listen, could I have
some wine please?
- What are you doing here?
- Working.
What work are you doing
'round here?
I'm a journalist.
I'm writing a story about this
pipeline in Central Europe.
- I worked on it too.
- Really?
You worked, or you work?
I worked on
the Aosta-Gran San Bernardo pipeline.
The whole time?
I did Genoa-Tortona
and Aosta-Gran San Bernardo.
- The point where the tunnel starts?
- Up until the mouth of the tunnel.
I did everything there,
crossings and non-crossings.
Now there's a warm wind,
it's not too cold.
But we worked at
27°,28°,29° below zero.
It was much worse than now.
- Were there many difficulties?
- No, it was perfect...
but there were problems
with the ice, the cold,
the shifting ground.
I had to build supports, gabions,
walls...
because they were watery areas,
with continuous water penetration
and there were always landslides,
therefore...
Even crossing the rivers in winter,
we were severely hampered
by icy conditions...
And in the tunnel in December...
to dig the earth we had to bore down
to 1.20 - 1.30 metres
because of the ice!
So, imagine the problems...
You worked both day
and night?
At certain points,
the tunnel mouth for example,
we worked day and night
without interruption,
because conditions worsened
and we had to lay the pipes...
The laying of a pipeline
involves a big outlay,
but looking after it
is cheaper
than older means of transport
like tank trucks.
The flow is rapid,
mechanized, continuous...
and handles inclines of 70%,
as opposed to 15% maximum
on the road.
So, sending a gallon of oil
2,000 Km
via a pipeline
costs less than sending
a postcard.
I found... what?
My guide.
Actually, he found me
in the public house.
The pipeline technicians
all have green parkas
lined with fur.
I'm cold.
- What's your name?
- Gabriele Morabia.
- Moravia?
- Morabia.
- Not like Alberto?
- No.
What route does the pipeline take
across these mountains?
Through the San Bernardo tunnel...
the Dranse Valley,
then it follows the highway,
the cantonal road,
then it veers off to Champex.
Then through the Rodano Valley
until it reaches the refinery.
How long is the route
through Switzerland?
61 Km.
The water came out of the mountain
and fell in an invisible river,
lower than road level.
They told him it was the Rodano.
"The Rodano's journey starts now
and the pipeline's journey
is already finished", thought Mario.
And he looked for the
surrounding walls of colleges
in which the children of
rich families studied Greek and Latin.
Instead, he saw the chimneys
of the Martigny refinery,
where that stretch of pipeline
came to an end.
He was reminded
of the pipeline's basic concept...
A pipeline transforms a continent's
entire economic strategy.
For example, refineries were
originally confined to the coast,
in places accessible
to the oil tankers...
now they can move inland,
closer to main consumption centres.
When a pipeline is laid, it transforms
economic and human geography.
So, Orson Welles wasn't correct
when he said
that Switzerland was just
the Fatherland of William Tell,
the petite suisse...
and the cuckoo clock.
Because it's also the Fatherland
of Max Bill, Paul Klee...
and also Jean Luc Godard.
Switzerland...
a rainy day is a rainy day...
Whether here, in Patagonia,
Genoa or Iran...
This is Switzerland.
"That branch of Lake Como,
which extends towards the south,
is enclosed by two unbroken
chains of mountains,
which, as they advance and recede...
diversify its shores..."
It's so windy!
He found himself on Lake Como,
controlling the exactness
of Manzoni's geography.
The spot where the lake ends
and the Adda starts again...
That should be it.
A coastline formed
by two adjoining mountains,
one called San Martino...
not very visible...
the other called Resegnone,
resembling a saw...
it's beautiful.
Lecco, a small village,
not yet a town...
500 Km of road
were ahead of him,
the Alps, Switzerland, Austria,
Bavaria...
This is the pipeline...
to Ingolstadt,
where the second stretch
of pipeline terminated.
- Where is Switzerland?
- Behind you.
Behind you.
And Austria?
That would be looking towards
those snowy mountains down there...
- So Milan would be...
- Milan...
Milan is in front of you.
So where does the pipeline
come from?
It skirts the hill and enters
the lake at that point,
crossing it in this direction
for about 2 1/2 Km...
His new guide explained
the great difficulty
involved in crossing
rivers and lakes.
The project was called: “Varo".
The pipes were soldered together
in advance,
to the length of the stretch
of lake to be crossed.
Then it was carried
over to the opposite shore,
supported by special buoys.
Then the buoys were ballasted
so they sank.
The pipeline sank with them.
Then what?
It runs underneath us
till it reaches that chamber
and continues past the mountain.
I decided to take a big step
and continue on foot
as far as possible.
"Accompanied by the
ghosts of great walkers",
thought Mario: Goethe, De Brosses,
Heine, Stendhal...
And so I became
intimately acquainted
with that Sunday morning
on the north of Lake Como.
My relationship with the pipe
became closer...
The oil and I are taking
parallel paths.
Me on the road,
the oil in that meadow...
We travel at the same speed,
about 4 Km an hour.
Slower than that cart that looks
as if it's from a Mizoguchi film.
The vents,
painted with rust and frost,
kept him on the right track.
Indicators of the main pipe,
they sprang up along
the entire length of the pipeline:
dozens and dozens,
guiding him further north
on that Sunday morning.
Another vent...
I'll never learn how
to say it correctly.
"Vent"...
It's frozen over here.
It's dangerous...
What are you playing?
What are you playing?
- What game's this? War?
- Yes.
You're at war?
- Who are the enemy?
- The others.
- Who are the others?
- They're down in the village.
Switzerland's nearby isn't it?
- Over there...
- No, over there.
That mountain over there
is Switzerland.
- The village is over there.
- Over there?
My cousin's in Switzerland.
Ah, he's in Switzerland?
You know where the pipeline is?
- In there.
- Really?
- Where?
- There.
At how many metres?
Two hundred.
- What's your name?
- Tonino.
- And yours?
- Attilio.
- And yours?
- Cesare.
Well, goodbye Tonino,
goodbye Cesare...
- Goodbye...
- Attilio.
From village to village,
vent to vent,
almost house to house,
the accent changed.
Mario used the dialect changes
to work out how far he'd come
and how much further
he still had to go.
At last!
I found the tube again!
- How long is this tunnel?
- About 600 metres.
600 metres?
Can you shine the light here?
- What's this made of?
- Steel.
- The outside too?
- That's plastic fibre.
- It's hotter here than outside.
- I know.
This is quite scary.
Is it a straight tunnel?
Yes, it goes straight on.
It's like Jules Verne,
"Journey to the Centre of the Earth".
- Are there any animals here?
- No.
Let's go on.
- No kind of animals?
- No.
- Don't you get scared here?
- No.
Is there a risk of landslides?
Yes, you have to be careful.
You could get claustrophobia.
It's too bright.
I don't like it,
it's like coming out of prison.
- How are you?
- Very well... but as Dante said...
- “Will we see the stars again?”
- Exactly!
How nice to be out of there.
It's slippery here!
Good morning.
Where's San Francesco's candle?
-Sorry?
- Where the pipeline is.
Where the pipeline is...
It's there!
- That white line?
- Yes.
Which road should I take?
Go straight along that road to there.
Okay.
Francesca's candle...
We keep going round it
but never get there.
Take that road,
there's a bridge and then
some houses...
Go along that road,
then cross the river...
Oh, that's the river! Okay.
When you get there turn right...
- How far is it?
- Ten minutes away.
Ten minutes.
Just go along that road.
Bye.
At last!
How do I get up there?
I see now why
they wanted me to see it.
Come on!
It's that white vein...
That's a 70 degree incline.
In front of him,
was the start
of the Alpine section
of the pipeline.
It had been called
"Operation Alpine crossing".
The men spent months welding
the pipes together.
For kilometres and kilometres.
Making the pipes slither into
the gorges, climb up the rocks
and building telpher lines
to cross entire valleys.
They guided the pipeline
to an altitude of 2,000 metres,
dominating the mountains,
almost reaching the Spluga Pass.
This time, industry had learnt
how to discreetly become part
of the surrounding nature.
The valleys and woods, a few months
after the pipes were laid down,
seemed unspoilt.
The river of oil
flowed continuously,
passing unobserved,
as Mario described,
like a vein of black gold.
We're still in Switzerland.
The Grigioni Canton. The city
of Coira. The Romansh language.
A floating fir tree.
It'll be Christmas soon.
I don't know where I am exactly,
whether this is still Switzerland
or Liechtenstein.
160 square kilometres,
18,000 habitants.
Europe resembles a huge termitary,
when looking at pipeline maps.
The Russian pipeline goes from
the Volga-Ural basin to Berlin.
Rotterdam is connected
to Cologne and Hamburg,
Marseille to Karlsruhe.
To guide the pipeline
across the Rhine,
simple steel structures were built
so as not to upset the natural
landscape of the woods and the river.
Snow added the finishing touches
to the architects' work,
blending together
the shiny aerial bridge
with the green conifers.
And Mario was able to dream
of the legendary Loreley.
Blonde and slender.
She had drowned,
in the same waters the pipeline
soared over with its steel ribs.
Europe is a network
of oil and gas pipelines,
highways, tunnels, electricity lines,
small pump stations,
hidden behind rivers
amongst the trees.
If it's true that the Europe crossed
by great men on foot exists no more,
the Europe of railways
remains intact.
Maybe due to the miracle of snow.
Just as Valéry Larbaud's ode
to liberty remains intact.
"Lend me your sound,
your smooth powerful movement,
as you glide through Europe at night,
oh, special express train!
I experience comfort
for the first time
in a compartment
on the North Express.
The Orient Express,
South-Brenner-Bahn,
lend me your marvellous sound...
and the beautiful singer
with purple eyes
sang in the next compartment.”
No beautiful singer awaits me
at Lake Costanza.
I feel cold, damp and tired...
and I've lost track
of the pipeline.
Where I am now,
only Miles Davis' music
could save me.
This is Meersburg,
Germany's oldest town.
I feel better already.
In Lindau, Mario cheers up.
He relaxes by visiting Lake Costanza,
and taking plenty of photos.
Frantically,
like any well-respected tourist.
He finds the pipeline again
amidst a huge pine forest near Ulm.
Here too, nature has been attacked
by bulldozers
and oxyhydrogen flames.
But as time went by,
silence returned. The ground
hardened around the pipeline.
The gothic sacredness
of the German fir trees
was enriched
by a new,
hidden vitality.
Mario observes the tiny figures
of the men in the tank.
They're measuring the oil level.
WARNING! DANUBE RIVER
Another of Europe's great rivers.
More seagulls, more trains.
"One of the world's most impressive
monuments is the cathedral in Ulm.
With its 161-metre spires,
it's the world's tallest.”
It looks like it should be
in an Orson Welles film.
At this point of the journey,
in Ulm,
maybe it's time to take a pause,
during which Mario
goes in search
of Einstein's birthplace.
The search turns out
to be unsuccessful
because his guides,
a postman he meets
and this boy
have never heard of
Albert Einstein...
As Mario thought
he'd got it wrong
he gave up his search,
so we intervened and decided a pause
was unnecessary.
The cities. Cities and cars.
Cities, cars
and meetings.
The journey was about to end,
and man's best friend had grown
two extra legs.
The great race from Genoa
to Mittel Europe
ends in Ingolstadt,
in the heart of Bavaria.
Mr Meier,
the creator of Donau Kurier,
meets me in Ingolstadt,
at the "Danube Courier”.
As I walked around, I got
the impression that this city...
is full of tradition and history.
As a city, it dates back
to the 12th century.
From then on, its development
is well-known.
Its development was determined
by the fact that
the Wittelsbachians settled here,
in an area of Ingolstadt.
It was the first period,
called the “princely” period,
which lasted until the end
of Duke Louis VII,
in 1447.
The cathedral which carries
the name of Our Dear Lady
and the new castle were built
by Duke Louis.
Another famous man
I'm sure you've heard of
was Luther's great rival...
- Professor Hech.
- He was from Basilea.
Right, but he taught here too.
There were famous humanists
and astronomers,
such as Apian and Scheiner
who discovered sunspots...
So we could say that Ingolstadt was
the centre of the Counter-Reformation.
Yes, it was one of them.
From a spiritual point of view,
it was the most important.
It's a city with many contrasts.
You saw its medieval centre
and around that
lies a very modern city,
with wide roads...
industries,
high-rise apartment blocks and so on.
It developed very quickly.
The biggest boost came in '59,
when the first discussion took place
of building here in Ingolstadt
a centre
for oil refining.
The Genoa-Europe pipeline
is almost 1,000 kilometres long,
and is able to transport
18 million tons of oil a year,
of which only a third,
6 million tons,
can fuel 3 million cars
for a year,
if we calculate that every car
on average does 16,000 Km a year.
The rest, almost two thirds
of the product,
makes enough fuel to produce
30 billion kilowatts per hour.
- This is the pipeline terminal.
- After leaving Genoa?
- At what speed does the oil arrive?
- 4-5 kilometres per hour.
- So as fast as we walk.
- Yes, more or less.
From here,
the crude oil is sent
to these five storage tanks
with floating roofs.
- How much do they hold?
- 25,000 cubic metres each.
These are the oil refining plants.
What happens during
the refining process?
In very simple terms...
different components
are separated
from the crude oil.
Crude oil is a combination
of hydrocarbons.
The well-known commercial products
like gas, oil and so on
are components of crude oil.
To separate these,
a special system is used,
called topping
Can I ask another question?
So crude oil is never used?
Almost never. Only in rare cases
like in the Sahara
for certain French trucks,
whose engines have been adapted
to use
the locally extracted crude oil.
- Is that the only case?
- As far as I know.
Go on.
The topping unit
consists of a heater,
into which the crude oil
from the storage tanks flows.
The crude oil is heated
to 300 °C plus,
then sent to the topping tower.
Here, where temperatures
differ from top to bottom,
the components condense at different
levels in special containers.
What is produced first?
The first thing produced from
the bottom is heavy-weight fuel,
used for industrial boilers...
and ovens.
Italians call it diesel.
Yes, they do,
but it's not the correct term.
In the higher section of the tower
gas oil and diesel oil are extracted.
A bit higher up,
kerosene is extracted,
which is known as "oil" in Italy.
How come? Isn't this oil?
Yes, that's crude oil.
This is a component of crude oil,
called kerosene.
Special types of kerosene
are used for certain engines.
- Like jet engines?
- Yes.
In the next part
gasoline is extracted.
It's extracted then separated
into heavy-weight gasoline,
to obtain a high-octane gasoline,
And light-weight gasoline...
which is stored after undergoing
a desulphurisation process.
From the combination of these two,
the light and the reformed
heavy type,
in different proportions,
we obtain ordinary petrol
and the Super type for the market.
At last I know the difference
between normal gasoline and Super!
As well as gasoline, there are gases.
Some gases extracted
from the topping tower
can be liquidized...
and some can't.
- What are these gases?
- Butane and propane.
Which of these gases
do lighters use?
Usually it's propane.
Any surplus,
which we keep to a minimum,
is then flared here.
- The surplus?
- Yes.
The gas is flared
to avoid air pollution.
Is that the end of the process?
- Yes.
- How tall is this tower?
- Where the flame is.
- At a height of 70 metres.
These two are chimneys.
They're 120 metres tall.
The idea of bringing oil to Ingolstadt
in the heart of Bavaria,
came from Italy.
It's been a godsend for Bavaria.
Because until 1959-1960,
the Bavarian industries endured
the highest costs for power
in Germany.
It was necessary to bring
that power here.
The first project
was initiated by Eni,
transporting oil via a pipeline
from Genoa...
to Switzerland, Austria,
Bavaria and Ingolstadt.
This is where my journey ends,
where Rococo
meets the oil extracted in Persia,
the Sahara or Sinai.
The oil transplanted from deserts
to snow-filled areas
has huge effects on a country's
economy, technology and society.
It changes the existence of man
like the wheel did,
the first metals, gunpowder,
steam engines and electric engines.
For us travellers,
after 1,000 kilometres
of Europe and its pipeline,
one thing is clear:
oil is a symbol of the past,
present and future.
Subtitles by:
lasers. Film s.r.l. - Rome
industry developed near coalfields.
In proximity to iron and coal,
the nail factories, foundries
and mechanized mills
of the industrial revolution thrived.
Today, industries gravitate
to where oil arrives:
springing up in centres,
no longer black with soot,
for the production of light metals,
artificial fibres
and 5,000 other products
of the new oil chemistry.
But Europe does not produce oil,
it must import 90%
of the crude oil it consumes.
To propel it from the ports
to the continent's heart
where the refineries are located,
oil requires its own routes.
These routes are called pipelines.
EPISODE THREE
ACROSS EUROPE
Vertical Genoa.
Vertigo, air, steps.
Multicoloured Genoa,
flags of tow-boats.
Just glimpsed Genoa...
Bricks, gravel, rocks.
Dockside Genoa,
transatlantic,
netting.
Seaport Genoa, Chinese,
guttural.
Heartache, cliffs,
Oil tanker Genoa.
The tankers leave for the East again,
their huge tanks empty.
They've entrusted the product
to pipes
that convey it
to Genoa's coastal depot.
The underground river starts here,
linking Genoa with Switzerland,
Austria and Bavaria.
For 365 days and nights,
18 million tons of oil,
extracted from the hot earth of Asia
and Africa, go back to the earth.
Here's our last view
of the pipeline.
It will disappear underground,
an iron-clad river,
pumped, measured, controlled,
obedient to valves, filters and
pumps regulated by electronic brains.
Everything okay?
Is the suction valve open?
Is the suction valve open?
Serena?
We're ready to go.
We're starting with P2.
The Genoa-Europe pipeline's
first leg
is 85 Km long:
a mix of mountains and plains,
fires and Apennine chestnuts,
poplars and maize of the Po Valley.
At Sannazzaro de'Burgondi
in the province of Pavia,
the Eni pipeline
breaks into two branches.
One goes west for 250 Km
to Martigny in Switzerland,
the other goes east for 650 Km
to Ingolstadt in Bavaria,
between MEC and COMECON.
The Eni refinery
is one of Europe's biggest,
and is first
to make use of
the crude oil sent from Genoa.
The start of a new day,
a small airport.
A Viscount arrives from Rome.
I don't exactly know
which one you are,
but I know you're here
amongst the others.
Introduce yourself.
My name's Mario.
Here I am in the Italy of the '60s.
I've come from Latin America
to do a story on a pipeline
that crosses Europe.
The mysteries of journalism!
What's the distance
between Turin and Chivasso?
Turin to Chivasso
is about 15 kilometres.
15 kilometres?
Unbelievable: sunshine in Turin
but rain in Rome for 10 days.
It's really funny...
it's like springtime here!
- You're not from Turin, are you?
- No, Milan.
Lombardy is more beautiful.
Greener?
You must have relatives
in Argentina, right?
No, plenty of friends
who are there for work...
There's a huge oil pipeline...
- Almost 2,000 Km long.
- So you know.
Just what exactly is there
here at Chivasso?
At Chivasso we have
a pumping station.
It's the pipeline
that comes from Genoa...
Listen, these 15 Km
seem like 80, huh?
-80?
- We're going very slowly.
Seeing as there's no greenery
in Patagonia...
everyone paints
their houses green...
There's green everywhere,
it's nostalgia for greenery.
Good evening, Prof. Gavani?
- I'm Mario Greco, the journalist.
- I was expecting you.
Sorry I'm late...
- What's it called, this...
- Chivasso.
- No, this...
It's the pipeline's pumping station.
Here are the traps:
this is where the oil arrives.
- This is the arrival trap.
- What about that one?
That's where it departs.
This is where the "pig"
is received from Ferrera.
- What's the “pig"?
- A separator.
- You know what it means in English?
-Yes, I do!
- Here are two “pigs".
- These are they?
- Exactly.
- What do they do?
This one separates
two different batches of product.
That one cleans the pipe.
See the steel brushes?
They scrape out the pipe
and remove...
the paraffin, all the sediment
that the oil leaves...
- What's that?
- The surge drum.
Come on, Bianca!
I'm Emilian.
- Emilian?
- From Modena.
- Worked here for long?
- Five years.
- Isn't it a bit dull?
- No.
There's always something
to dismantle, see or learn.
Isn't it lonely?
A bit, but not that much.
Bianca, come here!
Know what it reminds me of?
"Red Desert".
Have you seen that film?
Don't you think there's
something similar in this...
No, why?
We're isolated out here, but...
You're not neurotic
like the characters in the film?
No, absolutely not!
Bianca, come here!
I thought there'd be
a big work force here.
No, it's all automatic.
All automatic... it's a brain.
Come this way.
This is the beginning and the end
of the pump station.
This is the arrival valve
for the oil coming from Ferrera.
- From Ferrera?
- Yes.
And that's the departure valve
going to Aosta.
- To Aosta?
- Yes.
That's where
the next pump station is located.
They pump the oil up to Etroubles
and then it goes to a Swiss refinery.
There are two:
this one and that one...
First encounter with the pipe,
the pigs, filters, valves.
I get it,
the oil can't get up the mountains
by itself
and these machines give it a shove.
In the pumping station's
meter room,
Mario wondered if he'd bought
enough woollens in Rome.
He was headed for snowy climes.
These are all over the place,
what are they?
They're seals.
Customs make us seal...
Customs insist the pipeline
is sealed at all points
where it would be possible
to extract oil.
No one can get at the oil...
Not without breaking the seal,
and that'd get you into trouble.
The snow in Aosta was different
from the stuff Mario
remembered seeing
on the cordillera of the Andes.
He thought the city snow smelled.
And it turned yellow right away.
Now I'll show you
the pipeline's route
beyond Aosta.
It's complicated.
Here, it starts out from Aosta,
from the south of Aosta...
The entrance to the Val D'Aosta
was so harrow
that the Ancient Romans cut away
the rock to make a road.
The pipeline uses
the same gorges and passages.
Then it continues and crosses
this road again
till it reaches the pump station
at Etroubles.
Isn't there a risk of freezing
at this temperature?
No, it can even cope
with lower ones,
because the pipeline runs
2 metres underground.
It's not really affected
by external temperatures.
It's hard working here,
how many years did they take...
- About a year and a half...
- A year and a half?
Including the building
of the stations...
- Did many people work on it?
- 250, 300 workers.
Listen...
they must have used
some really heavy equipment?
Big tractors, bulldozers,
diggers...
especially for digging out
the pipe route.
A bit like...
Hannibal's campaign.
An updated version, let's say...
1962-style.
This chamber is...
a breakout tank.
It's needed in case
there's an inundation,
or if a fault develops,
like a break in the pipe.
It's needed to drain off the product
and separate
the uphill and downhill flows.
It's a small concentration camp.
- That church is lovely.
- It's the village of Gignod.
- All French names...
- Well, we're in the Val d'Aosta!
The pipeline is a simple
but revolutionary idea,
like the Roman aqueduct.
The liquid, flowing on itself,
moves on its own.
The pipe runs underground.
Above it is the snow,
above the snow there's the road,
and above that there's me
as I follow the pipe.
My relationship to the pipe
starts to feel some weariness.
I fall asleep and dream
of an uneventful world
and a car suspended
in the afternoon.
I dream of myself dreaming
a few magic images...
"cinematomagic" ones...
like "Les enfants terribles”,
"Blood of a Poet".
A snowplough bumps into me.
Disorientated, I wake up
in an unfamiliar car
in an unfamiliar place.
Excuse me, please...
have you seen someone else?
He was driving an AGIP car.
- What time is it?
- Around five.
- What's this place called?
- Etroubles.
- A hamlet of Etroubles.
- But that's near to...
- How far is the border?
- 20 kilometres.
Twenty?
Is there a hotel
where I can eat?
There's a public house...opposite.
- That one? Is it open?
- Yes.
Fine. Thanks a lot.
Engineers, surveyors, assessors,
repairers, watchmen for the pipeline,
where are you hiding?
They've abandoned me.
Excuse me, there was someone else
here, haven't you seen them...
driving an AGIP car?
Engineer?
Engineer?
Listen, could I have
some wine please?
- What are you doing here?
- Working.
What work are you doing
'round here?
I'm a journalist.
I'm writing a story about this
pipeline in Central Europe.
- I worked on it too.
- Really?
You worked, or you work?
I worked on
the Aosta-Gran San Bernardo pipeline.
The whole time?
I did Genoa-Tortona
and Aosta-Gran San Bernardo.
- The point where the tunnel starts?
- Up until the mouth of the tunnel.
I did everything there,
crossings and non-crossings.
Now there's a warm wind,
it's not too cold.
But we worked at
27°,28°,29° below zero.
It was much worse than now.
- Were there many difficulties?
- No, it was perfect...
but there were problems
with the ice, the cold,
the shifting ground.
I had to build supports, gabions,
walls...
because they were watery areas,
with continuous water penetration
and there were always landslides,
therefore...
Even crossing the rivers in winter,
we were severely hampered
by icy conditions...
And in the tunnel in December...
to dig the earth we had to bore down
to 1.20 - 1.30 metres
because of the ice!
So, imagine the problems...
You worked both day
and night?
At certain points,
the tunnel mouth for example,
we worked day and night
without interruption,
because conditions worsened
and we had to lay the pipes...
The laying of a pipeline
involves a big outlay,
but looking after it
is cheaper
than older means of transport
like tank trucks.
The flow is rapid,
mechanized, continuous...
and handles inclines of 70%,
as opposed to 15% maximum
on the road.
So, sending a gallon of oil
2,000 Km
via a pipeline
costs less than sending
a postcard.
I found... what?
My guide.
Actually, he found me
in the public house.
The pipeline technicians
all have green parkas
lined with fur.
I'm cold.
- What's your name?
- Gabriele Morabia.
- Moravia?
- Morabia.
- Not like Alberto?
- No.
What route does the pipeline take
across these mountains?
Through the San Bernardo tunnel...
the Dranse Valley,
then it follows the highway,
the cantonal road,
then it veers off to Champex.
Then through the Rodano Valley
until it reaches the refinery.
How long is the route
through Switzerland?
61 Km.
The water came out of the mountain
and fell in an invisible river,
lower than road level.
They told him it was the Rodano.
"The Rodano's journey starts now
and the pipeline's journey
is already finished", thought Mario.
And he looked for the
surrounding walls of colleges
in which the children of
rich families studied Greek and Latin.
Instead, he saw the chimneys
of the Martigny refinery,
where that stretch of pipeline
came to an end.
He was reminded
of the pipeline's basic concept...
A pipeline transforms a continent's
entire economic strategy.
For example, refineries were
originally confined to the coast,
in places accessible
to the oil tankers...
now they can move inland,
closer to main consumption centres.
When a pipeline is laid, it transforms
economic and human geography.
So, Orson Welles wasn't correct
when he said
that Switzerland was just
the Fatherland of William Tell,
the petite suisse...
and the cuckoo clock.
Because it's also the Fatherland
of Max Bill, Paul Klee...
and also Jean Luc Godard.
Switzerland...
a rainy day is a rainy day...
Whether here, in Patagonia,
Genoa or Iran...
This is Switzerland.
"That branch of Lake Como,
which extends towards the south,
is enclosed by two unbroken
chains of mountains,
which, as they advance and recede...
diversify its shores..."
It's so windy!
He found himself on Lake Como,
controlling the exactness
of Manzoni's geography.
The spot where the lake ends
and the Adda starts again...
That should be it.
A coastline formed
by two adjoining mountains,
one called San Martino...
not very visible...
the other called Resegnone,
resembling a saw...
it's beautiful.
Lecco, a small village,
not yet a town...
500 Km of road
were ahead of him,
the Alps, Switzerland, Austria,
Bavaria...
This is the pipeline...
to Ingolstadt,
where the second stretch
of pipeline terminated.
- Where is Switzerland?
- Behind you.
Behind you.
And Austria?
That would be looking towards
those snowy mountains down there...
- So Milan would be...
- Milan...
Milan is in front of you.
So where does the pipeline
come from?
It skirts the hill and enters
the lake at that point,
crossing it in this direction
for about 2 1/2 Km...
His new guide explained
the great difficulty
involved in crossing
rivers and lakes.
The project was called: “Varo".
The pipes were soldered together
in advance,
to the length of the stretch
of lake to be crossed.
Then it was carried
over to the opposite shore,
supported by special buoys.
Then the buoys were ballasted
so they sank.
The pipeline sank with them.
Then what?
It runs underneath us
till it reaches that chamber
and continues past the mountain.
I decided to take a big step
and continue on foot
as far as possible.
"Accompanied by the
ghosts of great walkers",
thought Mario: Goethe, De Brosses,
Heine, Stendhal...
And so I became
intimately acquainted
with that Sunday morning
on the north of Lake Como.
My relationship with the pipe
became closer...
The oil and I are taking
parallel paths.
Me on the road,
the oil in that meadow...
We travel at the same speed,
about 4 Km an hour.
Slower than that cart that looks
as if it's from a Mizoguchi film.
The vents,
painted with rust and frost,
kept him on the right track.
Indicators of the main pipe,
they sprang up along
the entire length of the pipeline:
dozens and dozens,
guiding him further north
on that Sunday morning.
Another vent...
I'll never learn how
to say it correctly.
"Vent"...
It's frozen over here.
It's dangerous...
What are you playing?
What are you playing?
- What game's this? War?
- Yes.
You're at war?
- Who are the enemy?
- The others.
- Who are the others?
- They're down in the village.
Switzerland's nearby isn't it?
- Over there...
- No, over there.
That mountain over there
is Switzerland.
- The village is over there.
- Over there?
My cousin's in Switzerland.
Ah, he's in Switzerland?
You know where the pipeline is?
- In there.
- Really?
- Where?
- There.
At how many metres?
Two hundred.
- What's your name?
- Tonino.
- And yours?
- Attilio.
- And yours?
- Cesare.
Well, goodbye Tonino,
goodbye Cesare...
- Goodbye...
- Attilio.
From village to village,
vent to vent,
almost house to house,
the accent changed.
Mario used the dialect changes
to work out how far he'd come
and how much further
he still had to go.
At last!
I found the tube again!
- How long is this tunnel?
- About 600 metres.
600 metres?
Can you shine the light here?
- What's this made of?
- Steel.
- The outside too?
- That's plastic fibre.
- It's hotter here than outside.
- I know.
This is quite scary.
Is it a straight tunnel?
Yes, it goes straight on.
It's like Jules Verne,
"Journey to the Centre of the Earth".
- Are there any animals here?
- No.
Let's go on.
- No kind of animals?
- No.
- Don't you get scared here?
- No.
Is there a risk of landslides?
Yes, you have to be careful.
You could get claustrophobia.
It's too bright.
I don't like it,
it's like coming out of prison.
- How are you?
- Very well... but as Dante said...
- “Will we see the stars again?”
- Exactly!
How nice to be out of there.
It's slippery here!
Good morning.
Where's San Francesco's candle?
-Sorry?
- Where the pipeline is.
Where the pipeline is...
It's there!
- That white line?
- Yes.
Which road should I take?
Go straight along that road to there.
Okay.
Francesca's candle...
We keep going round it
but never get there.
Take that road,
there's a bridge and then
some houses...
Go along that road,
then cross the river...
Oh, that's the river! Okay.
When you get there turn right...
- How far is it?
- Ten minutes away.
Ten minutes.
Just go along that road.
Bye.
At last!
How do I get up there?
I see now why
they wanted me to see it.
Come on!
It's that white vein...
That's a 70 degree incline.
In front of him,
was the start
of the Alpine section
of the pipeline.
It had been called
"Operation Alpine crossing".
The men spent months welding
the pipes together.
For kilometres and kilometres.
Making the pipes slither into
the gorges, climb up the rocks
and building telpher lines
to cross entire valleys.
They guided the pipeline
to an altitude of 2,000 metres,
dominating the mountains,
almost reaching the Spluga Pass.
This time, industry had learnt
how to discreetly become part
of the surrounding nature.
The valleys and woods, a few months
after the pipes were laid down,
seemed unspoilt.
The river of oil
flowed continuously,
passing unobserved,
as Mario described,
like a vein of black gold.
We're still in Switzerland.
The Grigioni Canton. The city
of Coira. The Romansh language.
A floating fir tree.
It'll be Christmas soon.
I don't know where I am exactly,
whether this is still Switzerland
or Liechtenstein.
160 square kilometres,
18,000 habitants.
Europe resembles a huge termitary,
when looking at pipeline maps.
The Russian pipeline goes from
the Volga-Ural basin to Berlin.
Rotterdam is connected
to Cologne and Hamburg,
Marseille to Karlsruhe.
To guide the pipeline
across the Rhine,
simple steel structures were built
so as not to upset the natural
landscape of the woods and the river.
Snow added the finishing touches
to the architects' work,
blending together
the shiny aerial bridge
with the green conifers.
And Mario was able to dream
of the legendary Loreley.
Blonde and slender.
She had drowned,
in the same waters the pipeline
soared over with its steel ribs.
Europe is a network
of oil and gas pipelines,
highways, tunnels, electricity lines,
small pump stations,
hidden behind rivers
amongst the trees.
If it's true that the Europe crossed
by great men on foot exists no more,
the Europe of railways
remains intact.
Maybe due to the miracle of snow.
Just as Valéry Larbaud's ode
to liberty remains intact.
"Lend me your sound,
your smooth powerful movement,
as you glide through Europe at night,
oh, special express train!
I experience comfort
for the first time
in a compartment
on the North Express.
The Orient Express,
South-Brenner-Bahn,
lend me your marvellous sound...
and the beautiful singer
with purple eyes
sang in the next compartment.”
No beautiful singer awaits me
at Lake Costanza.
I feel cold, damp and tired...
and I've lost track
of the pipeline.
Where I am now,
only Miles Davis' music
could save me.
This is Meersburg,
Germany's oldest town.
I feel better already.
In Lindau, Mario cheers up.
He relaxes by visiting Lake Costanza,
and taking plenty of photos.
Frantically,
like any well-respected tourist.
He finds the pipeline again
amidst a huge pine forest near Ulm.
Here too, nature has been attacked
by bulldozers
and oxyhydrogen flames.
But as time went by,
silence returned. The ground
hardened around the pipeline.
The gothic sacredness
of the German fir trees
was enriched
by a new,
hidden vitality.
Mario observes the tiny figures
of the men in the tank.
They're measuring the oil level.
WARNING! DANUBE RIVER
Another of Europe's great rivers.
More seagulls, more trains.
"One of the world's most impressive
monuments is the cathedral in Ulm.
With its 161-metre spires,
it's the world's tallest.”
It looks like it should be
in an Orson Welles film.
At this point of the journey,
in Ulm,
maybe it's time to take a pause,
during which Mario
goes in search
of Einstein's birthplace.
The search turns out
to be unsuccessful
because his guides,
a postman he meets
and this boy
have never heard of
Albert Einstein...
As Mario thought
he'd got it wrong
he gave up his search,
so we intervened and decided a pause
was unnecessary.
The cities. Cities and cars.
Cities, cars
and meetings.
The journey was about to end,
and man's best friend had grown
two extra legs.
The great race from Genoa
to Mittel Europe
ends in Ingolstadt,
in the heart of Bavaria.
Mr Meier,
the creator of Donau Kurier,
meets me in Ingolstadt,
at the "Danube Courier”.
As I walked around, I got
the impression that this city...
is full of tradition and history.
As a city, it dates back
to the 12th century.
From then on, its development
is well-known.
Its development was determined
by the fact that
the Wittelsbachians settled here,
in an area of Ingolstadt.
It was the first period,
called the “princely” period,
which lasted until the end
of Duke Louis VII,
in 1447.
The cathedral which carries
the name of Our Dear Lady
and the new castle were built
by Duke Louis.
Another famous man
I'm sure you've heard of
was Luther's great rival...
- Professor Hech.
- He was from Basilea.
Right, but he taught here too.
There were famous humanists
and astronomers,
such as Apian and Scheiner
who discovered sunspots...
So we could say that Ingolstadt was
the centre of the Counter-Reformation.
Yes, it was one of them.
From a spiritual point of view,
it was the most important.
It's a city with many contrasts.
You saw its medieval centre
and around that
lies a very modern city,
with wide roads...
industries,
high-rise apartment blocks and so on.
It developed very quickly.
The biggest boost came in '59,
when the first discussion took place
of building here in Ingolstadt
a centre
for oil refining.
The Genoa-Europe pipeline
is almost 1,000 kilometres long,
and is able to transport
18 million tons of oil a year,
of which only a third,
6 million tons,
can fuel 3 million cars
for a year,
if we calculate that every car
on average does 16,000 Km a year.
The rest, almost two thirds
of the product,
makes enough fuel to produce
30 billion kilowatts per hour.
- This is the pipeline terminal.
- After leaving Genoa?
- At what speed does the oil arrive?
- 4-5 kilometres per hour.
- So as fast as we walk.
- Yes, more or less.
From here,
the crude oil is sent
to these five storage tanks
with floating roofs.
- How much do they hold?
- 25,000 cubic metres each.
These are the oil refining plants.
What happens during
the refining process?
In very simple terms...
different components
are separated
from the crude oil.
Crude oil is a combination
of hydrocarbons.
The well-known commercial products
like gas, oil and so on
are components of crude oil.
To separate these,
a special system is used,
called topping
Can I ask another question?
So crude oil is never used?
Almost never. Only in rare cases
like in the Sahara
for certain French trucks,
whose engines have been adapted
to use
the locally extracted crude oil.
- Is that the only case?
- As far as I know.
Go on.
The topping unit
consists of a heater,
into which the crude oil
from the storage tanks flows.
The crude oil is heated
to 300 °C plus,
then sent to the topping tower.
Here, where temperatures
differ from top to bottom,
the components condense at different
levels in special containers.
What is produced first?
The first thing produced from
the bottom is heavy-weight fuel,
used for industrial boilers...
and ovens.
Italians call it diesel.
Yes, they do,
but it's not the correct term.
In the higher section of the tower
gas oil and diesel oil are extracted.
A bit higher up,
kerosene is extracted,
which is known as "oil" in Italy.
How come? Isn't this oil?
Yes, that's crude oil.
This is a component of crude oil,
called kerosene.
Special types of kerosene
are used for certain engines.
- Like jet engines?
- Yes.
In the next part
gasoline is extracted.
It's extracted then separated
into heavy-weight gasoline,
to obtain a high-octane gasoline,
And light-weight gasoline...
which is stored after undergoing
a desulphurisation process.
From the combination of these two,
the light and the reformed
heavy type,
in different proportions,
we obtain ordinary petrol
and the Super type for the market.
At last I know the difference
between normal gasoline and Super!
As well as gasoline, there are gases.
Some gases extracted
from the topping tower
can be liquidized...
and some can't.
- What are these gases?
- Butane and propane.
Which of these gases
do lighters use?
Usually it's propane.
Any surplus,
which we keep to a minimum,
is then flared here.
- The surplus?
- Yes.
The gas is flared
to avoid air pollution.
Is that the end of the process?
- Yes.
- How tall is this tower?
- Where the flame is.
- At a height of 70 metres.
These two are chimneys.
They're 120 metres tall.
The idea of bringing oil to Ingolstadt
in the heart of Bavaria,
came from Italy.
It's been a godsend for Bavaria.
Because until 1959-1960,
the Bavarian industries endured
the highest costs for power
in Germany.
It was necessary to bring
that power here.
The first project
was initiated by Eni,
transporting oil via a pipeline
from Genoa...
to Switzerland, Austria,
Bavaria and Ingolstadt.
This is where my journey ends,
where Rococo
meets the oil extracted in Persia,
the Sahara or Sinai.
The oil transplanted from deserts
to snow-filled areas
has huge effects on a country's
economy, technology and society.
It changes the existence of man
like the wheel did,
the first metals, gunpowder,
steam engines and electric engines.
For us travellers,
after 1,000 kilometres
of Europe and its pipeline,
one thing is clear:
oil is a symbol of the past,
present and future.
Subtitles by:
lasers. Film s.r.l. - Rome