Great Oil Sniffer Hoax - Elf Involvement

Elf Involvement

Although the connection remains unclear to this day, some time in 1976 de Villegas and Bonassoli were introduced to Elf officials, apparently though de Villegas or Violet's connections in the French intelligence services. Bonassoli explained that he had been tinkering with televisions when he hit upon the idea of building his gravity wave detector that could be used to detect masses underwater - not just oil, but submarines as well. He had developed these into two machines, "Delta" detected oil from the air and output a paper report, while "Omega" mapped out the resources from closer ranges and displayed on a TV screen. He was willing to demonstrate the devices, but only if there were no scientists present, claiming that they might steal his ideas. Information about the pair's invention quickly made their way up the French political hierarchy.

In spite of the obvious scientific problems that would have turned up had they been investigated, there is no record of anyone involved having attempted any sort of scientific due diligence. Nor is there any record of any sort of background check, which would have turned up the string of previous failures. Such an obvious oversight on the part of the officials might sound odd, but writers have commented on a sort of political chauvinism that surrounded the project. At the time Elf was almost wholly controlled by the government, as were similar companies in other European nations and Canada. Unlike those companies, Elf had little crude oil supply of its own, and few known deposits for future commercialization. Elf was in danger of losing its status as a producer, at some point becoming nothing more than another refiner. If the devices could find new sources of oil practically anywhere, as was being claimed, Elf might remain among the small family of oil-producing European nations. This possibility was so attractive that the official involved overlooked any doubts that were expressed, while also keeping the project completely secret.

Between 30 April and 7 May 1976 the devices were demonstrated for Elf officials, who obliged Bonassoli's "no scientists" request. The devices, not much larger than a few photocopiers, were installed in a transport plane behind curtains and flown around over known oil fields. Sure enough the device flashed lights, drew lines on the attached TV, and printed paper with a sort of topographical map on it. The map looked almost identical to previously published public exploration reports. The Elf observers, including company founder Pierre Guillaumat, were completely convinced that the devices were real.

In May 1976 Elf signed a 200 million Swiss Franc (USD80 million) contract for a two-year exclusive use while the device was tested. When this contract was complete, a second would take over in 1978 for an additional 250 million Francs (USD 130 million), expenses not included. This was apparently done without Elf's civilian board of directors being made aware of the project.

France's president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, was told of the devices in June 1976 and was aware of the development contracts being given to de Villegas' Fisalma. Four months later the new prime minister, Raymond Barre, learned of devices when his signature was required to waive various currency restrictions in order to transfer the funds abroad to the company's Swiss bank account. To keep the project secret, the funds were transferred through previously small Elf bank accounts.