21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: It’s Tough Getting Crude Oil From an Italian Olive Grove.

Val d’Agri — more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Eni’s Rome headquarters — has the potential to become Western Europe’s biggest onshore field. But output was shut for seven of the past 18 months amid a probe into allegations of illicit waste-water disposal and a subsequent crude leak.

To help get Val d’Agri back on track and to more effectively tap its 1 billion barrels of reserves, Eni dispatched a 56-year-old veteran of the company’s drilling campaigns in Libya and Kazakhstan. One of Walter Rizzi’s main jobs is to win back public support in the mountainous region of Basilicata, where some locals aren’t convinced the economic boost from oil royalties is worth the environmental risk.

“Being here is strategic for us for several reasons,” said Rizzi, vice president of Eni’s special project for Val d’Agri. “The oil quality is extremely high, meaning the refinery cost is low, and the potential is huge.”

It wasn’t so long ago that the world was about to run out of oil, and now it seems there’s virtually nowhere that isn’t awash in the stuff. So much so that Italian mountaindwellers can afford to turn their noses up at low royalty payments for sitting on what might be Western Europe’s “biggest onshore field.”