USA/FILE: U.S. oil services firm Halliburton is moving its headquarters and CEO to Dubai in a move that immediately sparked sharp criticism

U.S. oil services giant Halliburton Co. is moving its headquarters and chief executive to Dubai. The Texas-based Halliburton, which was led by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, did not specify what, if any, tax implications the move might entail. It plans to list on a Middle East bourse once it moves to Dubai -- a booming commercial centre in the Gulf. The company said it was making the moves to position itself better to gain contracts in the oil-rich Middle East. The move has already triggered sharp criticism among politicians and analysts. "This is kind of a slap in the face to taxpayers and basically an assertion that they can do whatever they want and get away with it without any consequence," said Charlie Cray, Director Policy Analyst at the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington D.C. The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to stop corporate threats to democracy. It also publishes halliburtonwatch.org. Halliburton has drawn scrutiny from auditors, congressional Democrats and the Justice Department for the quality and pricing of its KBR Inc. unit's work for the U.S. army in Iraq. "It appears that they are leaving the scene of the crime after all of these outstanding investigations and now that Congress is finally willing to dig in deep on the Iraq contracts and some of these other scandals, but Halliburton has announced for some time that they wanted to shed KBR," Cray said. He added that although many agree Halliburton would want to be closer to where its deals and contracts are in the Middle East-- Cray said it did not have to go to such extremes to move its headquarters. "They could have set up a Middle Eastern operational hub and kept their headquarters here in the U.S. So we think their ability to restructure their operations has other consequences in terms of holding the company accountable," he said. Halliburton, which has long been involved in the Middle East, generated more than 38 percent of its $13 billion in oil-services revenue in the eastern hemisphere last year. Halliburton said it would maintain its legal registration in the United States and was not leaving Houston, where it was currently based. KBR, the engineering and military-services contractor unit that Halliburton is in the process of splitting off, is the Pentagon's largest contractor in Iraq. KBR has so far booked more than $20 billion in revenues from its work in Iraq and has been the target of several investigations into the company's billing practices. It has also faced complaints from some U.S. lawmakers about the company's close ties to the Bush administration. Oil and gas service companies have raised prices for their services over the past two years as the sector strains to bring enough capacity on line to meet rapidly rising oil demand. Many new supply projects are in the oil-producing countries of the Middle East, while Asia accounts for most of the rising demand. In contrast, a slide in natural gas prices in the United States has prompted investor concerns that oil and gas companies might cut back spending in North America.

ITN Source | March 14, 2007

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