France, Soviets Sign Deal: France’s state-owned Elf...

France, Soviets Sign Deal: France’s state-owned Elf Aquitaine signed an oil exploration and production agreement with the Soviet Union, which the company’s president called the first such Kremlin deal involving a Western oil concern. The exploration and production deal gives Elf access to more than 13,500 square miles of Soviet territory north of the Caspian Sea near the Volga river.