Hydrocarbon exploration of the Po Valley: the Italian pioneers of seismic reflection surveying

Soon after the foundation of the Italian oil company AGIP in 1926, its management understood the need to strengthen the geophysical sector. The office was first headed by Arnaldo Belluigi, who had already published reports on the applications of geophysics to mining and petroleum exploration. Belluigi left AGIP in 1935, and his position was entrusted to his colleague Tiziano Rocco, a mining engineer trained in applied geophysics since 1929. Rocco carefully studied the scientific journals of the time and soon learned that a new geophysical method for oil exploration, seismic reflection, had been successfully tested in the USA since the early 1930s. In 1937, after some trials with German equipment and the in-house construction of rudimentary seismic units, AGIP asked Francesco Vercelli (Trieste Institute of Geophysics) to visit Berlin to verify the state of the art of the German allies, and look for a more convenient alternative than that of the American Western Geophysical, already contacted by Rocco. Vercelli visited Berlin together with Rocco, and they verified the lack of satisfactory technical standards, which instead they found in the USA the following year (1938) in another joint visit. Upon their return, not without effort, AGIP approved Western’s offer, and in 1939 two seismic groups arrived in Italy. The first survey was carried out on 10 June 1940, the very day Italy entered WW2, in the Po Valley basin. Good results arrived quickly: in late 1940, the structures of Ripalta, Caviaga, Cortemaggiore and Piadena had already been outlined. Rocco located the first exploratory wells, which led to the first success in 1944, the discovery of Caviaga gas field. Rocco left AGIP in 1943, due to the turbulent events of the armistice and the German occupation of Italy; from 1945 he worked with the Società Petrolifera Italiana and from 1948 with Western Geophysical. He returned to AGIP in 1951, as Director of exploration. In the 1950s and 60s he greatly contributed on the company’s successes in Italy and foreign countries (Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia and Libya), as well as for the detailed definition of the geological structures of the Po Valley basin. Rocco foresaw the potential of geophysics, and in particular of reflection seismic, at least a decade in advance in Europe, in times when there was no technological collaboration between Companies, Universities and Research Institutes, and scientific and technological advances were shared with difficulty.