Halliburton Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
For information on the early 20th century explorer of the same name, see Richard HalliburtonHalliburton Energy Services is a multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas, in the United States and the world's second-largest oilfield services company behind Schlumberger Limited. Founded in 1919, the company's primary focus is in the energy and petroleum industries, although it has many diverse subsidiaries which operate in other areas. Its headquarters was based in Dallas, Texas, but moved to Houston, Texas in 2003. Halliburton has employed up to 115,000 people in over 100 countries.
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2 Iraq Controversy 3 See also 4 External links |
History
1919 to 1990
Mr. and Mrs. Erle P. Halliburton first tried to find work cementing oil wells in Burkburnett then moved their business (New Method Oil Well Cementing Company) to the Healdton field near Ardmore, Oklahoma.
- 1920: reorganized - Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company
- 1921: headquarters - Duncan, Oklahoma
- 1924: incorporation
- 1948: New York Stock Exchange listing
- 1957: acquisition of Welex Jet Services of Fort Worth, Texas
- 1960: name shortened to Halliburton Company
- 1961: headquarters - Dallas, Texas
- 1962: acquisition of Brown and Root of Houston, Texas
- 198?: acquisition of Geophysical Services from Texas Instruments
- 198?: acquisition of Geosource
- 198?: Halliburton Logging Services
- 1982: workforce - 115,000
- 1982: energy industry decline
- 1991: workforce - 73,000
1990s
- In the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait in 1991, Halliburton crews helped bring 320 burning oil wells under control.
- In the early 1990s Halliburton was found to be in violation of federal trade barriers in Iraq and Libya, having sold these countries dual-use oil drilling equipment and, through its former subsidiary, Halliburton Logging Services, sending six pulse neutron generators to Libya. After having pleaded guilty, the company was fined $1.2 million, with another $2.61 million in penalties.
- In the Balkans conflict in the 1990s, KBR supported U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, Croatia and Hungary with food, laundry, transportation and other lifecycle management services.
- In 1995 Dick Cheney became chairman and CEO
- In 1998 Halliburton merged with Dresser Industries.
- Although HPS was incorporated in the Caymans and is "non-American", it shares both the logo and name of Halliburton Energy Services and, according to Dow Jones Newswire offers services from Halliburton units world-wide through its Tehran office. Such behaviour, undertaken while Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, may have violated the Trading with the Enemy Act.
- A Halliburton spokesman, responding to inquiries from Dow Jones, said "This is not breaking any laws. This is a foreign subsidiary and no US person is involved in this. No US person is facilitating any transaction. We are not performing directly in that country."
- Cheney retired from the company during the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign, and was awarded a severance package worth $20 million.
2000-
- In 2001 it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal that a subsidiary of Halliburton Energy Services called Halliburton Products and Services Ltd opened an office in Tehran. The company, HPS, operated "behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block." HPS was incorporated in 1975 in the Cayman Islands.
- In 2002, Judicial Watch filed suit on behalf of shareholders against Cheney and 13 other Halliburton directors, as well as Halliburton itself and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen LLP and Arthur Andersen Worldwide.
- In April 2002, a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), was awarded a $7 million contract to construct steel holding cells at Camp X-Ray. More recently, the subsidiary was awarded a no-bid contract to conduct oil well firefighting in Iraq worth an estimated $1 billion. In May 2003, Halliburton's role under contract with regard to Iraqi oilfields was expanded to include "operation of facilities and distribution of products". [1]
- Also in May 2003, Halliburton revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its KBR subsidiary had paid a Nigerian official $2.4 million in bribes in order to receive favorable tax treatment. [1] [1]
- As of 2003, Halliburton was still operating in Iran. CNN, in a report entitled "US companies are operating in Iran despite sanctions," reported that a Halliburton spokesperson told the news agency that HPS helps Iran build oil rigs in the country's south.
- The company is currently (2003, 2004) being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission due to allegations of profit inflation by accounting for cost overruns as revenue in shareholder reports. Halliburton counters that the practice was approved by its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and conforms to generally accepted practices.
- Halliburton's chairman and CEO is David J. Lesar, who took over the positions from Dick Cheney, now the U.S. Vice President.
Iraq Controversy
In recent years the company has become the center of many controversies involving the 2003 Iraq War and the company's ties to US Vice President Dick Cheney. Bill Gertz, defense reporter for The Washington Times, wrote:- Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive officer of Halliburton from 1995 until 2000, and Democrats repeatedly have tried to link the administration to claims of government favoritism toward the firm. [1]
Today KBR employ over 30,000 men and women 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 the troops; provides firefighter and crash-rescue services, as well as working to restore Iraqi oil flow.
But KBR has been no friend to Halliburton shareholders, losing money over the past three years as it moved to settle $4.2 billion in asbestos-related claims inherited from a 1998 acquisition. Despite the cronyism allegations, the company's contracts in Iraq are much less profitable than its core energy business. They are expected to have generated more than $13 billion in sales by the time they start to expire in 2006 but most offer low margins - less than 2 per cent on average in 2003 and just 1.4 per cent this year for the logistics work.
At a meeting for investors and analysts in August 2004 it outlined plans to dispose of KBR, the business at the source of its business difficulties and image problem, 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 the time management decides what to do with the business in 2005.
Halliburton is the only company mentioned by terrorist Osama bin Laden in an April 2004 tape where he claims that "this is a war [in Iraq] that is benefiting major companies with billions of dollars."
Halliburton is still making annual payments to its former chief executive, the vice-president Dick Cheney. The payments, which appear on Mr. Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure statement, are in the form of "deferred compensation" of up to $1 million (£600,000) a year. The "deferred compensation" accounts has generated an income between $50,000 to $100,000 for the vice president. Dick Cheney also retains unexercised stock options at Halliburton, the vice president's benefits include three batches of stock options comprising 433,333 shares. He also has a 401(k) retirement account valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 dollars.
On the question of Mr. Cheney's income from Halliburton, officials of the Bush-Cheney campaign said that before entering office in 2001, Mr. 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. The officials also said he had promised to donate to charity any after-tax profits he made from exercising his stock options. These steps are not unusual for corporate executives who enter government.
In 2002, Cheney's total asset wealth was valued at between $19.1 million and $86.4 million.
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