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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Halliburton to leave Iran, spin off Kellogg, Brown & Root |
| 2005-01-30 |
| The chief executive of Halliburton said on Friday that the company would withdraw all employees from Iran and end its business activities there after its Iranian energy exploration contracts came under criticism this month. Halliburton, the nation's largest energy- and military-services company, plans to cease dealings in Iran when it completes its present commitments, David J. Lesar, Halliburton's chief executive, told investors on a conference call. Those commitments include a gas-drilling deal with an Iranian partner valued at about $35 million that the company secured this month, he said. "The business environment currently in Iran is not conducive to our overall strategy and objectives," Mr. Lesar said. Speculation has been increasing about potential military action by the United States in Iran. Halliburton and a handful of other American companies have been able to circumvent sanctions against doing business there. Halliburton operates in Iran through a unit based in nearby Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that in turn is registered in the Cayman Islands. No American citizens are permitted to work in Iran for Halliburton, and its investing there is limited to no more than $40 million. Yet Halliburton's decision to no longer be in Iran, even working within the restrictions, suggests that it is still sensitive to criticism about its operations in the Middle East and its connections to Vice President Dick Cheney, who ran the company for five years until 2000. Mr. Lesar also signaled on Friday that the company was moving forward with plans to split off KBR, the unit responsible for carrying out its military-services contracts in Iraq. "In Iran they figured it's probably not worth the grief," said Michael Urban, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. Halliburton's Iraq-related work accounted for $1.7 billion of revenue in the most recent quarter, out of a total of $5.2 billion. Leaving Iran raises an eyebrow, but why divest of KBR? |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 They'll just give their Mad Mullah Money to a Russian or Chinese company. Nothing is actually accomplished by this - except saving expat lives, of course, when the The NYT doesn't care about anything but appearances. Image over content. That's why they suck so much and have made themselves irrelevant. This was merely an opportunity to prove that fact - and repeat the LLL Cheney meme, of course, lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-30 4:53:19 PM |
| #2 The KBR divestiture may have more to do with the outlook for large construction projects (refineries, petrochemical plants, etc.) than any Iraq or other political considerations. |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-01-30 2:45:06 PM |
| #1 We can never leave Iran, that's where the ballots are. |
| Posted by: Lyndon Bones Johnson 2005-01-30 2:26:44 PM |