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Halliburton Company is an American
multinational corporation A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
responsible for most of the world's
hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fra ...
operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries. It owns hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands, and divisions worldwide and employs approximately 55,000 people. The company has dual headquarters located in
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
and in
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...
, and remains incorporated in the United States.''"Halliburton to Move Headquarters to Dubai"''
– ''
All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' – NPR – March 12, 2007
Steffy, Loren
''"Halliburton heralds Houston's hereafter"''
Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
– March 14, 2007
Steffy, Loren
''"Sound Off: Halliburton's Dubai kiss"''
- Houston Chronicle - March 14, 2007
Halliburton's major business segment is the Energy Services Group (ESG). Halliburton's former subsidiary,
KBR KBR can stand for: * KBR (company), formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root, US * KBR (news agency), an Indonesian radio news agency * KBR Park, Hyderabad, India * Kafa language, spoken in Ethiopia * Key-based routing in computer networking * Potassium bro ...
, is a major construction company of
refineries A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refinerie ...
, oil fields, pipelines, and
chemical plant A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transfo ...
s. Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007, that it had sold the division and severed its corporate relationship with
KBR KBR can stand for: * KBR (company), formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root, US * KBR (news agency), an Indonesian radio news agency * KBR Park, Hyderabad, India * Kafa language, spoken in Ethiopia * Key-based routing in computer networking * Potassium bro ...
, which had been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company.''"Halliburton Completes Separation of KBR"''
2007 Press Releases - Halliburton.com - April 5, 2007
The company has been criticized for its involvement in numerous controversies, including its involvement with
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...
– as U.S. Secretary of Defense, then CEO of the company, then
Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice p ...
– and the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
, and the '' Deepwater Horizon'', for which it agreed to settle outstanding legal claims against it by paying litigants $1.1 billion.
KBR KBR can stand for: * KBR (company), formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root, US * KBR (news agency), an Indonesian radio news agency * KBR Park, Hyderabad, India * Kafa language, spoken in Ethiopia * Key-based routing in computer networking * Potassium bro ...
, one of Halliburton's subsidiaries at the time, paid bribes to high-ranking Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004. Under a deal reached with the U.S. Justice Department, Halliburton has agreed to pay $382 million to settle the bribery case. In 2015, Halliburton was found guilty in court for illegal retaliation against a
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
who filed a report with the SEC over concerns that the company was illegally concealing billions of dollars. The company has also been criticized for refusing to comply with EPA requests for transparency around chemicals it uses in hydraulic fracturing. Jeff Miller was promoted to President of Halliburton on August 1, 2014, and CEO on June 1, 2017, replacing Dave Lesar.


Business overview


Locations

The company has dual headquarters located in
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
and in
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...
, but it remains incorporated in the United States.


Divisions

Energy services (the company's historical cornerstone), formation evaluation, digital and consulting services, production volume optimization, and fluid systems are the major business segments. These businesses continue to be profitable, and the company is one of the world's largest players in these service industries; it is second after
Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling comp ...
, and is followed by
Saipem Saipem S.p.A. (Società Anonima Italiana Perforazioni E Montaggi lit. ''Drilling and Assembly Italian Public Limited Company'') is an Italian multinational oilfield services company and one of the largest in the world. Until 2016 it was a subsid ...
,
Weatherford International Weatherford International plc, an American Irish public limited company, together with its subsidiaries, is a multinational oilfield service company and one of the largest companies in the world in oil services. Weatherford is a wellbore and p ...
, and
Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, produc ...
. 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 that works in an industry that tends to have an element of volatility and is subject to significant fluctuations in revenue and
profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...
.
Asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
-related litigation from Kellogg acquisition caused the company to book more than US$4.0 billion in losses from 2002 through 2004. As a result of the asbestos-related costs and staggering losses on the Barracuda Caratinga FPSO construction project based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 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. While Halliburton's revenues have increased because of its contracts in the Middle East, the overall impact on its bottom line has been mixed. 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 Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...
or
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
. Analysts at
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York St ...
valued KBR at up to $2.15 billion, while others believed it could be worth closer to $3 billion by 2005. KBR became a separately listed company on April 5, 2007.


History


Early history (as HOWCO)

The company was started in 1919 by
Erle P. Halliburton Erle Palmer Halliburton was an American businessman specializing in oil field services. Early life Halliburton was born on September 22, 1892, near Henning, Tennessee, the son of Lou Emma (Cothran) and Edwin Graves Halliburton. When Halliburton ...
as the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company. In 1920, he brought a wild gas well under control, using cement, for W.G. Skelly, near
Wilson, Oklahoma Wilson is a town in Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,724 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to one of the oldest Assemblies of God churches in Oklahoma, t ...
. On March 1, 1921, the Halliburton "method and means of excluding water from oil wells" was assigned a patent from the
U.S. Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
. Halliburton invented the revolutionary cement jet mixer, to eliminate hand-mixing of cement, and the measuring line, a tool used to guarantee cementing accuracy. By 1922, the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company (HOWCO) was prospering from the Mexia, Texas oil boom, having cemented its 500th well in late summer. In 1924, the company was incorporated in
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
, with 56 people on its payroll. The stock of the corporation was owned by Erle and Vida Halliburton and by seven major oil companies: Magnolia, Texas, Gulf, Humble, Sun, Pure and Atlantic. In 1926, its first foreign venture began with sale of equipment to
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
and India. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Halliburton continued cementing across America. In 1938, Halliburton cemented its first offshore well using a truck on a barge off the Louisiana coast. In 1940, Halliburton opened offices in Venezuela and introduced bulk handling of cementing to the industry. In 1947, the Halliburton first marine cementing vessel went into service. In 1951, Halliburton first appeared in Europe as Halliburton Italiana SpA, a wholly owned subsidiary in Italy. Over the next seven years, Halliburton launched Halliburton Company Germany GmbH, set up operations in Argentina and established a subsidiary in England. By 1951, HOWCO had service centers operating in Canada, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Halliburton revenues topped $100 million for the first time in 1952. Erle P. Halliburton died in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
in 1957. HOWCO is at this time worth $190 million with camps all over the world. The same year, HOWCO purchased Welex, which pioneered jet perforation. Otis Engineering, an oil field service and equipment company specializing in manufacturing pressure control equipment for oil and gas producing wells, was acquired in 1959.


As Halliburton

On July 5, 1961, the company changed its name to the Halliburton Company. In 1963, Halliburton was the first company in Oklahoma to receive the Presidential "E" for Export flag in recognition of notable contributions to foreign trade. Halliburton opened a manufacturing center in Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1964. The company began to experiment with new technologies to help their services – for example, beginning in 1965 a pilot operation of a computer network system – the first such installation in the oilfield services industry. In 1966, workers broke ground for a new wing at the Research Center in Duncan that tripled the available space for the Chemical Research and Design Department. In 1968, an automated mixing system for drilling mud was developed by Halliburton, primarily for use offshore. Gearhart Industries (acquired by Halliburton Energy Services in 1989) introduced the first digital computer logging system in 1974. In 1969, Halliburton began construction of a base camp at
Prudhoe Bay Prudhoe Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 2,174 people, up from just five residents in the 2000 census; however, at any give ...
on
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
's North Slope. In 1975, it responded to environmental concerns by working with the nonprofit Clean Gulf Associates to contain and clean up oil spills. In 1976, Halliburton established the Halliburton Energy Institute in Duncan, Oklahoma, to provide an industry forum for disseminating technical information. In 1980, Halliburton Research Center opened in Duncan, Oklahoma. The company's billionth sack of cement for customers was pumped in 1983. In 1989, Halliburton acquired logging and perforating specialist company Gearhart Industries and combined it with its subsidiary Welex to form Halliburton Logging Services. Throughout the 1980s, Halliburton's subsidiaries continued their projects around the world (under management of former CEO Brian Darcy) even in countries once considered enemies. Equipment was provided for the first multiwell platform offshore China, and an Otis Engineering team controlled a gigantic Tengiz field blowout in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.


1990s

Following the end of
Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
in February 1991,
the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
, led by then defense secretary
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...
, paid Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root Services over $8.5 million to study the use of private military forces with American soldiers in combat zones. Halliburton crews also helped bring 725 burning oil wells under control in
Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...
. In 1995, Cheney replaced Thomas H. Cruikshank, as
chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...
and
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
. Cruikshank had served since 1989. 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 In politics, diplomacy and export control, dual-use items refers to goods, software and technology that can be used for both civilian and military applications.
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. During the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
conflict in the 1990s, Kellogg Brown-Root (KBR) supported U.S. peacekeeping forces in
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...
,
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...
and Hungary with food, laundry, transportation, and other life-cycle management services. In 1998, Halliburton merged with Dresser Industries, which included Kellogg.
Prescott Bush Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the from 1952 of the Bush family, he was the father of former Vice President and Pr ...
was a director of Dresser Industries, which is now part of Halliburton; his son, former president George H. W. Bush, worked for Dresser Industries in several positions from 1948 to 1951, before he founded
Zapata Corporation HRG Group, Inc., formerly Harbinger Group Inc. and Zapata Corporation, is a holding company based in Rochester, New York, having originated from an oil company started by a group including future U.S. president George H. W. Bush. In 2009, it w ...
.


2000s

''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported in 2001 that a subsidiary of Halliburton Energy Services called Halliburton Products and Services Ltd. (HPS) opened an office in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. The company, HPS, operated on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. Although HPS was incorporated in the
Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...
in 1975 and is "non-American", it shares both the logo and name of Halliburton Energy Services and, according to Dow Jones Newswires, offers services from Halliburton units worldwide through its Tehran office. Such behavior, undertaken while senior Republican (later U.S. vice president) Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, may have violated the
Trading with the Enemy Act Trading with the Enemy Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States relating to trading with the enemy. ''Trading with the Enemy Acts'' is also a generic name for a class of legislation generally ...
. A Halliburton spokesman, responding to inquiries from Dow Jones, said "This is not breaking any laws. This is a foreign subsidiary and no U.S. person is involved in this. No U.S. person is facilitating any transaction. We are not performing directly in that country." No legal action has been taken against the company or its officials. Later, David J. Lesar, Halliburton's chief executive, announced that Halliburton would withdraw from Iran. In April 2002, KBR was awarded a $7 million contract to construct steel holding cells at Camp X-Ray. In November 2002, KBR was tasked to plan oil well firefighting in Iraq, and in February 2003 was issued a contract to conduct the work. Critics contend that it was a
no-bid contract Multisourcing is the concept of working with multiple suppliers who are also competitors. Large-scale buyers, such as the U.S. federal government, may want to feel assured that there is more than one supplier for an item. It has been described as ...
, awarded due to Dick Cheney's position as vice president. Concern was also expressed that the contract could allow KBR to pump and distribute Iraqi oil. Others contend, however, that this was not strictly a ''no-bid contract,'' and was invoked under a contract that KBR won "in a competitive bid process." The contract, referred to as LOGCAP, is a contingency-based contract that is invoked at the convenience of the Army. Because the contract is essentially a retainer, specific orders are not competitively bid (as the overall contract was). In May 2003, Halliburton revealed in
SEC filings The SEC filing is a financial statement or other formal document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Public companies, certain insiders, and broker-dealers are required to make regular SEC filings. Investors and fin ...
that its KBR subsidiary had paid a Nigerian official $2.4 million in
bribes Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
in order to receive favorable tax treatment.,
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
In October 2004, after emerging from the bankruptcy protection, Halliburton opened a new facility on , replacing an older facility that opened in 1948, in
Rock Springs, Wyoming Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 23,036 at the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state of Wyoming, and the most populous city in Sweetwater County. Rock Springs is ...
. With over 500 employees, Halliburton is one of the largest private employers in
Sweetwater County Sweetwater County is a county in southwestern Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 42,272, making it the fourth-most populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Green River. By area, it is the la ...
. On January 24, 2006, Halliburton's subsidiary KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root) announced that it had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
to build "temporary detention and processing facilities" or
internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...
camps. According to ''
Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...
'', this contract will be executed in cooperation with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
,
Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
District. Critics point to the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Gua ...
as a possible model. According to a press release posted on the Halliburton website, "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
(ICE) Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities." In February 2008, a hard disk and two computers containing classified information were stolen from Petrobras while in Halliburton's custody. Allegedly, the content inside the stolen material was data on the recently discovered
Tupi oil field The Tupi oil field (reverted from Lula oil field) is a large oil field located in the Santos Basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The field was originally nicknamed in honor of the Tupi people and later named after the mollusc, ...
. Initial police inquiries suggest that it could be a common container theft operation. The container was a ramshackle in complete disorder indicating that thieves were after "valuables and not only laptops," said an expert consulted by the daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. In 2008, Halliburton agreed to outsource its mission-critical information technology infrastructure to a Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex data center operated by CyrusOne Networks LLC. On May 14, 2010, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
said in an interview with CNN that "you had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else" when referring to the congressional hearings held during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. "The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't." According to Tim Probert, executive vice president of Halliburton, "Halliburton, as a service provider to the well owner, is contractually bound to comply with the well owner's instructions". It was anticipated that Halliburton's $2.5 billion "Restore Iraqi Oil" (RIO) contract would pay for itself as well as for reconstruction of the entire country. Plans called for more oil to be exported from Iraq's northern oil fields than actually occurred. Halliburton's work on the pipeline crossing the
Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
river at Al Fatah has been called a failure. Critics claim that the oil fields are barely usable and access to international markets is severely limited. As an example, against the advice of its own experts, Halliburton attempted to dig a tunnel through a geological
fault zone In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectoni ...
. The underground terrain was a jumble of boulders, voids, cobblestones, and gravel and not appropriate for the kind of drilling Halliburton planned. "No driller in his right mind would have gone ahead," said Army geologist Robert Sanders when the military finally sent people to inspect the work.


Proposed acquisition of Baker Hughes

On November 17, 2014, Halliburton and
Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, produc ...
jointly announced a definitive agreement under which Halliburton will, subject to the conditions set forth in the agreement, acquire Baker Hughes in a stock and cash transaction valued at $34.6 billion. A press release made available on the former's website, as at December 11, 2014 detailed the restructuring in the integration to follow. The firm announced it would acquire
Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, produc ...
for around $35 billion in cash and stock, creating an oilfield services company that aims to compete with
Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling comp ...
. Prior to the merger of Baker Hughes and Halliburton, Halliburton must divest over $5 billion of its assets according to the regulations created by US competition enforcement authorities. The merger had a deadline of the end of April 2016 after which, if a decision had not been made, both companies could walk away from the deal if they chose. At the beginning of May 2016, the day after the deadline expired, Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced the termination of the merger agreement.


Chemical plant in Saudi Arabia

On March 1, 2022, Halliburton inaugurated its MultiChem facility in
Jubail Jubail ( ar, الجبيل, ''Al Jubayl'') is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, with a total population of 684,531 as of 2021. It is home to the largest industrial city in the world. It is also home to t ...
PlasChem Park, which will make
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
an
export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...
er of speciality products from an
import An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...
er of speciality products.


Controversies and criticism


Iraq War

Halliburton has become the object of several controversies involving the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
and the company's ties to former U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...
. Cheney retired from the company during the
2000 U.S. presidential election The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, ...
campaign with a severance package worth $36 million. As of 2004, he had received $398,548 in
deferred compensation Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employee's income is paid out at a later date after which the income was earned. Examples of deferred compensation include pensions, retirement plans, and employee stock options. The ...
from Halliburton while Vice President. Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company from 1995 to 2000 and has received stock options from Halliburton. In the run-up to the Iraq War, Halliburton was awarded a $7 billion contract for which only Halliburton was allowed to bid. Bunnatine Greenhouse, a civil servant with 20 years of contracting experience, had complained to Army officials on numerous occasions that Halliburton had been unlawfully receiving special treatment for work in Iraq, Kuwait and the Balkans. Criminal investigations were opened by the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) and the Pentagon's inspector general. These investigations found no wrongdoing within the contract award and execution process. In one of Greenhouse's claims, she said that military auditors caught Halliburton overcharging the Pentagon for fuel deliveries into Iraq. She also complained that Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Preside ...
's office took control of every aspect of Halliburton's $7 billion Iraqi oil/infrastructure contract. Greenhouse was later demoted for poor performance in her position. Greenhouse's attorney, Michael Kohn portrayed her performance reviews as punishment for criticizing the administrations, he stated in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that "she is being demoted because of her strict adherence to procurement requirements and the Army's preference to sidestep them when it suits their needs."


Deepwater Horizon explosion

An internal report released in 2010 by BP into the Deepwater Horizon explosion claimed that poor practices of Halliburton staff had contributed to the disaster. Investigations carried out by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling found that Halliburton was jointly at fault along with BP and Transocean for the spill. The cement that Halliburton used was an unstable mixture, and eventually caused hydrocarbons to leak into the well, causing the explosion that started the crisis. Halliburton pleaded guilty to destroying evidence after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster; the company destroyed computer simulations it performed in the months after the accident, simulations that contradicted Halliburton's claim that it was BP who had not followed Halliburton's advice. BP had employed Halliburton to oversee the process by which cement is used to seal casing in oil and gas wells, thereby preventing leaks. Government investigators had ordered companies involved in drilling the well to preserve all relevant evidence.


Allegations of corruption in Nigeria

In early December 2010, the Nigerian government filed
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
charges against Cheney in connection with his role as the chief executive of Halliburton. The case relates to an alleged $182 million contract involving a four-company joint venture to build a liquefied natural gas plant on
Bonny Island Bonny Island is situated at the southern edge of Rivers State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is near Port Harcourt. Ferries are the main form of transport to and from the island. The local language spoken on Bonny Island is Ibani ...
in southern Nigeria. Earlier in 2009, KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, agreed to pay $402 million after admitting that it bribed Nigerian officials, and Halliburton paid $177 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting any wrongdoing. In mid-December 2010, the case was
settled A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...
when Nigeria agreed to drop the corruption charges against Cheney and Halliburton in exchange for a $250 million settlement. According to Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the $250 million would include approximately $130 million frozen in a
Swiss bank Banking in Switzerland dates to the early eighteenth century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland, along wit ...
, and the rest would be paid as fines. The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database details 10 instances of misconduct since 1995 under which Halliburton has agreed to pay settlements of $791 million. A further 22 instances of misconduct relate to the company's former subsidiary KBR.


Environmental issues

In 2002, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports were completed to measure the amount of chemicals emitted from Halliburton's
Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas; as of the 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, ...
facility. The TRI is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities reported annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities. The facility had 230 TRI air releases in 2001 and 245 in 2002. On June 7, 2006, Halliburton's Farmington, New Mexico facility created a toxic cloud that forced people to evacuate their homes. Halliburton may also be implicated in the oil spills in the Timor Sea off Australia in August 2009 and in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 for improper cementing. Halliburton staff were employed on the Transocean operated '' Deepwater Horizon'' oil rig in the Mexican Gulf. Halliburton staff completed cementation of the final production well 20 hours prior to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion, but had not yet set the final. In July 2013, Halliburton Co agreed to plead guilty to charges that it destroyed evidence relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This incurred a $200,000 fine; the firm also agreed to three years of probation and to continue cooperating with the criminal probe into the spill. In September 2014, the company agreed to pay $1.1 billion in damages to settle the majority of claims against it relating to the explosion, removing the uncertainty which had hung over the company for the previous four years


Jamie Leigh Jones incident

Jamie Leigh Jones Jamie Leigh Jones (born 1985) is a former employee of KBR, an American engineering, construction and private military contracting company. During her employment, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton from 1962 to 2007. She is notable for accusing t ...
testified at a Congressional hearing that she had been gang-raped by as many as seven co-workers in Iraq in 2005 when she was an employee of KBR, and then falsely imprisoned in a shipping container for 24 hours without food or drink. KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time. Jones and her lawyers said that 38 women have contacted her reporting similar experiences while working as contractors in Iraq, Kuwait, and other countries. On September 15, 2009, the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Halliburton, in a 2 to 1 ruling, and found that her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract. This decision effectively meant that the mandatory arbitration clause in her contract did not apply. These incidents have tainted the public perception of Halliburton, with a consumer study rating it as the fifth least reputable company in America.


Sale of KBR

On April 15, 2006, Halliburton filed a registration statement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
to sell up to 20 percent of its KBR stock on the
NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...
under the ticker symbol "KBR", as part of an eventual plan for KBR to be a separate company from Halliburton. In November 2006, Halliburton began selling its stake in KBR, its major subsidiary, and by February 2007 had completely sold off the subsidiary. In June 2007, several days after Stewart Bowen, the Special Inspector General, released a new report, the Army announced that KBR would share another $150 billion contract with two other contractors, Fluor and Dyncorp, over the next 10 years.


Baghdad incident

In accordance with the law of armed conflict and to maintain
non-combatant Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligere ...
status, Halliburton does not arm its truck drivers. Trucks are often the target of
insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irre ...
attacks. On September 20, 2005, a convoy of four Halliburton trucks was ambushed north of Baghdad. All four trucks were struck by
improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...
s and were disabled. Their US
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...
escort was thought to have abandoned the disabled vehicles, leaving the drivers defenseless. Three of the four truck drivers were killed by the insurgents while the surviving driver caught the event on video. Although the trucks had military camouflage paint, the drivers were civilian. The US military returned to the scene 45 minutes later. However, in a statement by senior military officials in Iraq, an investigation revealed that troops did not abandon the civilians and they were all exiting the "kill zone" during the ambush.


Restatements

On March 31, 2003, Management at Halliburton restated earnings downward by $14 million for the fourth quarter of 2002. In the restatement, an additional $3 million expense (net of tax) to continuing operations and an $11 million expense, net of tax, to discontinued operations were recorded. On March 2, 2005, Halliburton restated its 2004 fourth-quarter earnings to add $2 million US in after-tax losses to reflect the collection of a $10 million receivable that had been reserved and a correction in lease accounting.


Health impacts

Halliburton has been criticized for its impacts on public health and the environment, most notably with the passing of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy probl ...
, also known as the Halliburton loophole. This law notably exempted chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing from the Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
, Safe Drinking Water Act, and CERCLA ("Superfund"). As a result of this, fracking fluids did not have to be reported to the EPA, rendering the
EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
unable to legally regulate or monitor them. In 2020, it was reported that out of nine companies the EPA has asked full disclosure from with regards to the chemicals used in gas drilling, Halliburton was the only one that refused to comply.


Illegal retaliation against whistleblower

In 2015, after a decade-long legal battle, Halliburton was declared guilty for illegally retaliating against
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
Tony Menendez. Menendez had filed a case with the SEC over concerns that Halliburton was taking illegal actions to conceal billions of dollars; following this, Halliburton retaliated against Menendez in a number of ways, including stripping Menendez of his responsibilities and forbidding him from coming to most meetings.


Corporate affairs


Headquarters

Halliburton's headquarters (North Belt Campus) are located in northern Houston, Texas, near George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport.Office Location
." Halliburton. Retrieved on December 14, 2009.

." Halliburton. April 3, 2009. Retrieved on January 22, 2010.
Halliburton was headquartered in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, from 1961 to 2003. The company moved its headquarters from the Southland Life Building in Dallas to of space in Lincoln Plaza in
Downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally ...
in 1985. 20 employees worked in Halliburton's headquarters in Dallas. Halliburton planned to move its headquarters to Houston in 2002. Halliburton, which signed its lease to occupy a portion of 5 Houston Center in Downtown Houston in 2002,Crescent's 5 Houston Center Opens Its Doors Nearly 90% Leased.
''
Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...
''. Tuesday October 8, 2002. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
moved its headquarters there by July 2003.Bivins, Ralph.
SURVIVAL OF THE NEWEST / OCCUPANCY DOWNTOWN TUMBLING, BUT THREE TOWERS DEFY TREND
(). ''
Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
''. Sunday July 27, 2003. Business 1. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
Halliburton occupied of space on the 24th floor in 5 Houston Center. In 2009 Halliburton announced that it planned to move its headquarters to the North Belt Campus in Houston. In addition it planned to consolidate operations at its Westchase and North Belt Campus.Clanton, Brett.
Halliburton to consolidate in 2 locations
." ''
Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
''. April 3, 2009. Retrieved on April 3, 2009.
The move occurred in 2009. The North Belt complex was to house 2,500 employees. Halliburton planned to add a research and development facility with laboratories, a new cafeteria, a childcare center, two additional parking garages, and fitness and wellness centers for employees. The plans for the North Belt Campus had been delayed by one year, and Halliburton expects completion in 2013. The construction of the North Belt administration building is scheduled to begin in late 2010. According to Marilyn Bayless, the president of the North Houston Greenspoint Chamber of Commerce, in 2003 Halliburton had planned to move operations out of the North Belt office because other area school districts offered the freeport tax exemptions while the Aldine Independent School District (AISD), where the North Belt office is located, did not. In order to attract businesses, in May 2003, AISD began offering the same tax exemption as other jurisdictions. Subsequently, Halliburton retained the North Belt office.Colley, Jenna.
New tax break may mean 'green' for Greenspoint
." ''
Houston Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor New ...
''. Friday June 20, 2003. Retrieved on April 5, 2010.


See also

* List of oilfield service companies *
Private military contractor A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private militar ...


References


Further reading

*


External links

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