Business Notes Energy

The Eiffel Tower of Paris has always looked a bit like an oil derrick. Now a consortium of French energy companies led by Societe Nationale Elf Aquitaine is exploring the possibility that there may actually be oil under the city's venerable streets. Last week four 14 1/2-ton trucks completed a series of seismic tests that took them lumbering down the Champs Elysees and past such landmarks as the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre.

Since pockets of oil were first discovered on the outskirts of Paris nearly 30 years ago, oil companies have suspected that further deposits might lie under the city itself. If significant amounts of crude are found beneath any of Paris' landmark districts, drilling could be done at a 45% angle, and thus the wellhead might be situated nearly two miles away. Elf Aquitaine spokesmen claim that the drilling equipment could be hidden behind fake building facades.