Information AboutHalliburton |
Halliburton Energy Services () is a Multinational Corporation with operations in over 120 countries. It has been at the forefront of several media and political controversies in relation to its work for the U.S. Government , its political ties and its corporate ethics. It is based in and Gas exploration and production. Halliburton's former subsidiary, KBR , is a major construction company of Refineries , Oil Fields , Pipelines , and Chemical Plant s. Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007 that it had finally broken ties with KBR, which has been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years. BUSINESS OVERVIEW Energy Services, the company's historical cornerstone, includes drilling & formation evaluation, digital & consulting solutions, production volume optimization, and fluid systems. This business continues to be profitable, and the company is one of the world's largest players in this industry; Schlumberger is the world's leading provider of oilfield services. With the acquisition of Dresser Industries in 1998, the Kellogg-Brown & Root division (in 2002 renamed to KBR) was formed by Merging Halliburton's Brown & Root (acquired 1962) subsidiary and the M.W. Kellogg division of Dresser (which Dresser had merged with in 1988). KBR is a major international construction company, which is a highly volatile undertaking subject to wild fluctuations in revenue and Profit . Asbestos -related litigation from the Kellogg acquisition caused the company to book over US$ 4.0 billion in losses from 2002 through 2004. As a result of the asbestos-related costs, Halliburton lost approximately $900 million U.S. a year from 2002 through 2004. A final non-appealable settlement in the asbestos case was reached in January 2005 which allowed Halliburton subsidiary KBR to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy and returned the company to quarterly profitability. So, while Halliburton's revenues have increased because of war in the Middle East, its bottom line continues to suffer.http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/asbestos.html At a meeting for investors and analysts in August 2004, a plan was outlined to divest the KBR division through a possible Sale , Spin-off or Initial Public Offering . Analysts at Deutsche Bank value KBR at up to $2.15 billion, while others believe it could be worth closer to $3 billion by 2005. KBR became a separately listed company on 5 April 2007. HISTORY 1919 to 1990 Vida and Erle P. Halliburton first tried to find work cementing oil wells in Burkburnett , Texas then moved their business ( New Method Oil Well Cementing Company ) to the Healdton field near Ardmore , Oklahoma .
Prescott Bush was a director of Dresser Industries , which is now part of Halliburton. Former United States president George H. W. Bush worked for Dresser Industries in several positions from 1948–1951, before he founded Zapata Corporation . 1990s
2000s
Today KBR employs over 30,000 people in Iraq. Halliburton's work in Iraq is diverse and complicated. In addition to troop support, Halliburton also provides air traffic control support; produces 74 million gallons of water a month for consumption, hygiene and laundry; deploys as many as 700 trucks a day to deliver essentials to American forces; and provides firefighter and crash-rescue services, as well as working to restore Iraqi oil Infrastructure . IRAQ CONTROVERSY Halliburton is the only company mentioned by Osama Bin Laden in an April 2004 tape in which he claims that "this is a war Iraq that is benefiting major companies with billions of dollars."http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3628069.stm Internet pundit John Burnett has described Halliburton's deals as recalling a Vietnam-Era controversy. He claims Vice President Cheney's ties to the company are reminiscent of President Lyndon B. Johnson 's relationships with Brown & Root . {Link without Title} Financials The company's contracts in Iraq are expected to have generated more than $13 billion in revenue by the time they start to expire in 2006, but most offer low Margin s — less than 2% on average in 2003 and just 1.4% this year for the Logistics work making these contracts less profitable than Halliburton's core energy business. The contracts in Iraq will be more profitable after the US Army reimburses them for costs that were originally investigated as potentially inflated. Meanwhile, KBR reconstruction contracts in Iraq 'tracked' by the US Department of Defense were shown to include as much as 55% of total project costs as overhead.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25reconstruct.html KBR has contracts in Iraq worth up to $18 billion, including a single No-bid Contract known as " Restore Iraqi Oil " (RIO) which has an estimated worth of $7 billion. An audit of KBR by The Pentagon ’s Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) found $108 million in "questioned costs" and, as of mid-March 2005, said they still had "major" unresolved issues with Halliburton. Ties with Dick Cheney Concerns have been raised regarding the possible Conflict Of Interest resulting from Cheney's deferred compensation and stock options from Halliburton. However, before entering office in 2001, Cheney bought an Insurance Policy that guaranteed a fixed amount of deferred payments from Halliburton each year for five years so that the payments would not depend on the company's fortunes. He is legally bound by an agreement he signed which turns over Power Of Attorney to a trust administrator to sell the options at some future time and to give the after-tax profits to three charities. The agreement specifies that 40% will go to the University Of Wyoming (in Cheney's home state), 40% will go to George Washington University's medical faculty to be used for tax-exempt charitable purposes, and 20% will go to Capital Partners For Education . The agreement states that it is "irrevocable and may not be terminated, waived or amended," preventing Cheney from taking back the options at a later date. Employee safety Halliburton does not arm its truck drivers, who in Iraq are often the target of insurgent attacks. In one case, on September 20 , 2005 , a Halliburton convoy of four trucks was ambushed north of Baghdad. All four trucks were struck by IEDs and were disabled. Their US National Guard escort was thought to have abandoned the disabled vehicles, leaving the unarmed truck drivers defenseless. Three of the four truck drivers were executed by the insurgents while the surviving driver, Preston Wheeler, caught the event on video. It was 45 minutes before the US military arrived again at the scene.http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/exclusive_us_tr.html However, in a statement by senior military officials in Iraq, an investigation revealed that troops did not abandon the civilians and were exiting the "kill zone" during the ambush.http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6056&Itemid=18 HALLIBURTON IN THE MEDIA
SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS Editorials from Halliburton Executives
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