AGIP

IP

Brief History

AGIP was formed in 1926 as the Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli to provide an Italian company to compete with Shell and Esso which dominated fuel distribution in Italy at that time. Its initial assets included APIA, a producer of oil in Romania previously owned by the state railways. By 1939 it was one of the three leading brands in Italy, with service stations selling its Victoria and Littoria petrols. In 1953 it was incorporated into the state owned ENI group and expanded greatly under the charismatic leadership of Enrico Mattei. Over the next three decades it moved into Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the UK (but only for a few years, selling out to Esso in 1966) and finally France. Agip acquired Shell's Italian operations in 1973, and switched them to the IP brand, but this was eventually sold to API in 2005. 1952 images above/top right courtesy of Jon RomaThe 1952 road atlas of Italy is the earliest known map from Agip; at this stage it still carried a small additional logo for ROMSA - Raffineria Olii Minerali SpA of Rome & Trieste, acquired by AGIP in the early 1950s. Published by Istituto Geografico de Agostini of Novara (IGDA) it has 22 pages of maps and advertises Energol motor oil. The same basic atlas design was used for a number of years the 1954 version has a redrawn cover placing more light onto the AGIP name on the signpost, and without the additional logos at the bottom. This version also has a red plastic comb binding, which with age has tended to become quite brittle.

Since 1990 ENI has been progressively privatised and the Agip brand has been expanded into newly liberalised markets in Southern and Eastern Europe such as Spain, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Prior to 1939, Agip advertised on RACI (the Royal Automobile Club of Italy) maps, and an image of a 1937 Agip autostrada station can also be found on a map issued by the Pirelli tyre company.

Bibliography: Mattei Oil & Power Politics, Faber & Faber, London 1966

Maps: AGIP

Also in the mid-1960s, Agip issued motel road atlases (1966 left and 1967 centre). At first sight they cover all of Italy with detailed plans of the area surrounding each motel. The example shows Livorno, with the smaller scale map of the area facing a town plan, both marking the motel's location. Closer inspection reveals that only around two thirds of the country was included - in a rough 100km radius from each motel, with significant gaps towards the South of the country where there were fewer motels. Agip was an early leader in establishing motels in Italy, although Shell worked closely with the rival Jolly chain.

The 1976 map shown left comes from a two-map set, sold in a clear plastic wallet. These maps had autostrade strip maps on the reverse. In 1977 AGIP published a special ski map of Italy, with district maps of 43 ski areas as far South as Catania on Sicily on the reverse. The example (right) shows the area around Como.

	In late 1987, AGIP printed 1,000,000 copies of this map folder. A glossy cover held a 32 page booklet, mainly of motorway strip maps (right), but also listing Agip motels and sites with LPG.
	In a pocket at the rear were 8 loose sheets on stiff paper, including six of maps by Mencattini at 1:800,000, one locating AGIP stations with video travel information screens and an index sheet.

The camping map of Italy is recent (1999) but unusual in that the road network takes second place to the physical geography, as can be seen from the extract (right). No numbering or distances are used, with only autostrade distinguished in red. Insets are used for Corsica (France) and the Lake Garda region, although the latter is not named! RenzoMatino is credited as the graphic designer and the map was produced in association with Editoriale Eurocamp.

Non-Italian Maps

AGIP also issued maps for Germany, Austria & Switzerland using cartographers such as Kümmerley & Frey and Hallwag in Europe and for some African countries such as Nigeria. Agip sold its small British chain to Esso in 1966 and so probably never issued maps there. Its French interests were very small until the 1980s and no French maps are known.

From left to right above: Agip's Austrian subsidiary, although not large in numbers of service stations, has produced a variety of maps. in the early 1960s, in common with other non-Italian subsidiaries, Agip produced maps with a plain yellow cover. This example contains a map at 1:625,000 from Fleischmann of Innsbruck.
In 1978 Hallwag printed a map of Austria at 1:1,000,000 showing the Brenner autobahn on the cover, and nearly 20 years later in 1996 Freytag-Berndt prepared one at 1:600,000. Both list all Agip's Austrian sites.
Next is a 1995 Freytag-Berndt map of Italy (at a generous 1:650,000 scale) pasted into a special Agip cover for the Austrian market - it is not known which other countries were included in this series, or if these maps were also sold into the German market, but it is probable that they were unique to Austria.

Agip plays heavily on its Italian origin in non-domestic markets, with its Ciao'Agip shops and a tendency to promote other Italian products including olive oil and Lavazza coffee. A 2001 A5 format atlas of Austria (Genießer-atlas - above right) lists 429 restaurants and 395 hotels, across 30 tours. At the back are 31 map sections by Freytag-Berndt, mainly at 1:500,000 (but with larger scale city plans) marking Agip locations. Amazingly this high-quality production was given away to customers, unlike an Agip Italian cookery book which was sold for €22. Although its early Swiss maps had a plain yellow cover like the Austrian example, by 1972 an altogether more striking design was used over a 1:500,000 Kümmerley & Frey map produced by NET of Geneva. This used an unusual (and unwieldy) patented method of locating towns and villages, with a horizontal rule across the top and bottom of the reverse side, and a vertical scale on the map side.

This AGIP atlas of Germany was issued in 1998, primarily to promote use of its Pan Europe Card amongst truck drivers. All stations accepting the card are listed: not just those selling AGIP fuels, but also Elf, Minol and Westfalen outlets. After 72 pages listing sites with facilities, there is a 64 page map section drawn by GeoData on a Falkplan-Verlag base map. (R) Dortmund is almost the only place in Germany where all three companies were present: Westfalen is only common in West-Central Germany and AGIP in the South.

As one the three main Western brands in Eastern & South-Eastern Europe (along with Shell and OMV), Agip has sold a number of maps in these newly liberalised markets. The examples here are, with their year and cartographer, from (left to right) the Czech Republic (2002, Freytag & Berndt), Hungary (2006, Cartographia), Bucharest in Romania (2003, Amco Press) and Bratislava in Slovakia (2005, Shocart). All are essentially stock maps with custom glossy covers.

Finally, an AGIP map from outside Europe, but included as it is still Mediterranean. Agip's Tunisian subsidiary produced this French language guide in 1974. Inside light card covers it contains a page of town plans and brief descriptions of major sights; inside that is a fold-out map of the Northern two-thirds of country. Prepared locally at a scale of 1:1,000,000, it also marks AGIP stations. The only Arabic script is in the AGIP logo on the rear cover. AGIP later sold its chain in the country to the local company AGIL.

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