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API

IP

Brief History

Anonima Petroli Italiana (API) was incorporated in November 1933 in Ancona, Italy. It still operates an oil refinery in the city and was supplying a network of almost 1,500 service stations covering most of Italy when, in 2005, it acquired the retail operations of IP formerly owned by Agip, more than doubling its network. For over 30 years it had a small chain in neighbouring Kärnten (Carinthia) in Austria, although it never supplied more than about six stations, so no maps of Austria are believed to have been issued by the brand.

Maps:

1963 API Map booklet

These two issues both carry an authorisation date of April 1963 for their maps, drawn to a scale of 1:750,000 by Vallardi. However from the extent of the autostrade (motorways), the left hand one is earlier; it is in the format of a paperback atlas with 28 pages of maps. The right hand map is one of a pair (Centro Nord and Centro Sud) of sheet maps; unlike the earlier issue it marks API depots and motorway service areas. It also includes inset strip maps of the main motorways. Both types of map prominently show the location of the API refinery.

ca1965 API sectional map of Italy

Front of API map

This next example dates from the mid or late 1960s. Both covers have a base of a road map shown in white on black, with the front featuring an API Super Sprint pump. The cartography was by Istituto Geografico de Agostini in Novara, as so often with commercial Italian maps.
Images courtesy of William Phillips.

Rear of API map

Front of 1993 map of Italy

This map is probably the most recent one prepared for API, as it dates from 1993. Covering Italy on a single sheet at the generous scale of 1:800,000, the map uses high quality modern cartography from EGM (EuroGeoGrafiche Mencattini) of Arezzo.

Rear of 1993 map of Italy

Maps: IP

When Shell first withdrew from Italian marketing in 1973, AGIP formed a new subsidiary company - Industria Italiana Petroli (IP) - to acquire Shell's assets. In later years, AGIP switched many of the higher volume IP locations to its own brand, and sold the remaining chain to API in August 2005.

As a late entrant to petrol retailing, IP maps are relatively few in number. The example shown was issued immediately after the Shell name was changed in 1975 and shows the "Azzeccapercorsi" or alternative roads to heavy traffic and motorways. No more recent IP maps are known to exist.

ca1975 Azzeccapercorsi map of Italy

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