<Addicted to Oil and Drunk on Ethanol The Oil Drum A review of the underlying fundamentals of nuclear energy>
<DrumBeat: March 11, 2007 DrumBeat DrumBeat: March 14, 2007>

165 comments on DrumBeat: March 12, 2007

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version

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?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
JoulesBurn on March 12, 2007 - 10:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

They say they intent to spin KBR off.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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 ...

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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....

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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'.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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..

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

165 comments on DrumBeat: March 12, 2007

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version