Haly Organizes European Oil Consortium Champions Third World Fight -In Europe

Sept. 18 (N SIP S) Gi1:1lo Andreotti 's Italian government thi� week successfully organized a new consortium of Western European oil companies to replace the Rockefeller family's "Seven Sisters " cartel in managing oil supplies to the European continent. The formation of the new consortium. composed of the West German. French. Belgian. and Italian state oil com­ panies. coincides with the North-South talks on Third World debt moratoria now underway in Paris. and represents only the most recent Italian initiative to prepare Europe for unimpeded nego­ tiations with Third World countries for a New World Economic Order. Leading up to the Sept. 15 formation of the cartel. the Italian government had been significantly broadening its initiatives for East-West and North-South trade expansion. including the an­ nouncement of a 5"year $150 billion trade deal between Italy and the German Democratic Republic. The Iranian gas company and an Italian group led by Saipem. a member of state holding company Ente Nationale Idrocarburi (ENI). have concluded agreements for the building of a gas treatment plant and a gas­ collecting and distribution network in northern Iran totalling $880 million. Also this week. Italstra del-Torno. a member of the Italian IRI state holding company. has contracted for the con­ 'struction of a $350 million hydro-electric plant in Turkey with the Turkish state company. One high international monetary official characterized the European "oil supply situation and independence of the major oil companies" as the "key to the entire monetary situation." Andreotti 's initiative in creating the new oil consortium. said the official. "is clearly an attempt to dislodge the dollar." Major Italian press who praised the new oil cartel were simul­ taneously insisting that moratoria on dollar-denominated debt for the Third World countries was inevitable and desirable. The Sept. 16 financial daily. II Fiorino. called for the industrial nations to grant the Third World demand for general debt moratoria. and characterized Italy 's debt situation as "like the Third World." The Sept. 16 Corriere della Sera said there was simply no alternative (See below). Mediterranean Peace Zone The European oil consortium directly prepares the entire Eu­ ropean Economic Community for participation in a Mediterra­ nean peace-and-cooperation treaty modelled on the Helsinki accords and including the African nations of Egypt. Irak. Jor­ dan and Syria. The content of any such accord would be "oil-for­ development" deals between European and Middle Eastern nations. The Italians are complementing their European industrial organizing with parallel diplomatic efforts. Italian Foreign Minister Arnaldo Forlani. who last week led the unanimous adoption of a pro-gold stance by the EEC foreign ministers meeting. went to Paris this week for personal consultations with the French President and Foreign Minister. Forlani told President Giscard that their two nations must have "broader consciousness of the common destiny" of France, Italy and other European nations. He specifically proposed that the French cooperate in the creation of a Mediterranean "peace zone." a central concept put forward by the Colombo. Sri Lanka conference of Non-Aligned Nations. -