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165 comments on DrumBeat: March 12, 2007

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John McFadden on March 12, 2007 - 9:52am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Halliburton to move HQ to Dubai

Halliburton, a US oil services company, said Sunday it will open a corporate headquarters in Dubai, extending operations in the Middle East and Asia.

The company is currently being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] and the US justice department over allegations of improper business affairs in Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria.

"Halliburton chairman, president and chief executive officer Dave Lesar will move to Dubai to lead the company's efforts in growing Halliburton's business in the Eastern hemisphere, an important market for the global oil and gas industry," the company said in a press release.

I haven't seen this in the main stream financial news headlines yet today, but Al Jazeera is reporting it.

There are implications for Americans here that go way beyond this one particular corporate move. Think down the road a bit.

While the average American may think Oregon will be place to be when the going gets tough, other "Americans" think, um, maybe Dubai.

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HeIsSoFly on March 12, 2007 - 9:56am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I am intrigued by the link that someone posted yesterday in a reaction to the news about the Halliburton move posted on the Drumbeat.

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Aviation/10110484.html

says that Dubai airport is one of the biggest cargo handlers in the world. What on earth comes in there? You're not talking about big population centers, after all. Is it all military cargo?

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John McFadden on March 12, 2007 - 10:02am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Sorry for the repost. I didn't get a chance to look at Drumbeat yesterday.

Did anyone comment on the rather incredible irony of a soon to be Middle East company running America's "detention centers" through KBR?

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HeIsSoFly on March 12, 2007 - 10:15am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Yeah, you have to love the fact that Middle East companies were barred from buying US ports, but they do get to run prisons.

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JoulesBurn on March 12, 2007 - 10:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

They say they intent to spin KBR off.

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PeakOil Tarzan on March 12, 2007 - 1:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

An AP reporter interviewed on NPR this AM speculated that from a taxation standpoint, Dubai would be a much more "friendly" location than Houston.

Question: Would anyone care to (1) speculate as to how much this will really affect Halliburton's tax liability and, (2) if this does present a much more favorable situation as regards taxation (and perhaps other regulation), what is to prevent the oil majors from relocating to Dubai?

Reason I ask is that Dubai is currently adding the equivalent of a mid-to-large American city's worth of office space each year and it is very hard for me to believe that all of this building is being done on speculation. Wouldn't it make more sense to think that perhaps "decisions" have already been made for mass-relocation of energy-related/energy-intensive businesses to Dubai and that the "icing on the cake" so to speak, will be a much more favorable tax and regulatory environment?

Isn't this, logically, the oil major's best solution to the specter of windfall profits taxation by the US Congress?

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ckaupp on March 12, 2007 - 2:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I think you hit the nail on the head. They avoid potential windfall profit taxes and they also avoid public scrutiny of their operations. Think about how much scandal Halliburton has been involved in.

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step back on March 12, 2007 - 3:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Are all their corporate records going to magically disappear from US shores and reappear in Dubai, deep in an unreachable warehouse that also stores lost arks?
Hmmm ...

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ckaupp on March 12, 2007 - 3:41pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

They just might. What many folks don't realize is that Halliburton has many huge business dealings with the axis of evil. Dubai is a perfect location to facilitate those business activities. Halliburton also deals in portions of the arms business, so what better place to be....

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MUDLOGGER on March 12, 2007 - 8:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

All sorts of irritations dissappear:

Tax
Windfall taxes
Congressional Investigations and oversight.
Meddling Journalists and authors.

All sorts of irritations evaporate when you throw your lot in with a feudal City State. All sorts of new opportunities arise.

Welcome to the 5GW world of Corporate Wars: Once you are free of Congressional oversight, you can buy a private , mercenary army and then do what you want.

Corporations are now living, breathing, intelligent entities. They supercede the National Governments of old.

Like any living creature, they exist to grow and breed.

They look after themselves.

Funny though: They spent the last decades waving old glory.

And now they are leaving...

Funny that... Who would have thought they would have put personal survival above the common wealth of the nation that nurtured them?

What did you really you expect from a VP who 'had other things to do' when grunts went to Vietnam?

'So long suckers and thanks for the cash'.

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ImSceptical on March 12, 2007 - 9:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Seems to me that William Gibson's view of the immediate future was right on. See Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, etc..

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HeIsSoFly on March 12, 2007 - 3:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Halliburton's Dubai Move Makes Democrats Suspicious

"For one of the largest contractors with the United States government to move its headquarters overseas? [It] just doesn't look good, doesn't sound good, doesn't smell good," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The move may raise serious national security questions too, as happened last year with the canceled port security contract with another U.A.E.-based company, Dubai Ports World. Congressional outrage scuttled that deal; Halliburton will now have some explaining to do to avoid similar scrutiny.

"Obviously a company that has its headquarters overseas should be given a little more scrutiny than an American company," Schumer said. "No question about it."

Halliburton is already being investigated by different government agencies for various allegations of improper business dealings, and it is in the cross hairs of Democrats in Congress for alleged overbilling.

At a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing last month, chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., noted that a government audit had indicated that Halliburton was responsible for "$2.7 billion in suspect billings."

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BrianT on March 12, 2007 - 4:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

He: They could build a corporate retreat (a "team building" centre) on a ranch in Paraguay. Supposedly they know somebody who owns land there.

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165 comments on DrumBeat: March 12, 2007

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