Just your friendly neighborhood Halliburton! Reps: U.S. Overpaying Halliburton for Gas http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031030/pl_nm/iraq_gasoline_cheney_dc_4 By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is paying Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s former firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - news) "enormous sums" -- $2.65 a gallon -- for gasoline imported into Iraq (news - web sites) from Kuwait, two lawmakers charged on Wednesday. Democrats Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan said this gross overpayment was made worse by the fact that the U.S. government was turning around and reselling the gasoline in Iraq for four to 15 cents a gallon. In a letter of complaint sent to President Bush (news - web sites)'s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), the two lawmakers said experts they consulted think the cost of buying and transporting gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq should cost less than $1 a gallon. The Iraqi oil company SOMO is paying only 97 cents a gallon to import gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq, they said. Waxman added in a statement: "We know that someone is getting rich importing gasoline into Iraq. What we don't know is who is making the money, Halliburton or the Kuwaitis?" Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which defends its pricing as fair, has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's oil sector. This has included importing oil products in short supply as the oil-rich nation's refineries are brought back into production. As of Oct. 19, Halliburton had imported 61.3 million gallons of gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq, and the company was paid $162.5 million for an average price of $2.65 a gallon, Waxman and Dingell wrote. "The $2.65 per gallon is grossly excessive," they said. "Experts we consulted stated that the total price for buying and transporting gasoline into Iraq should be less than $1.00 per gallon." The U.S. government was then selling this gasoline inside Iraq for just four to 15 cents a gallon, subsidizing over 95 percent of the cost of gasoline consumed by Iraqis, they said. "The U.S. government is paying nearly three times more for gasoline from Kuwait than it should, and then is reselling this gasoline at a huge loss inside Iraq," the lawmakers wrote. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall defended the company against what she said were "false statements" about its efforts in Iraq, adding that wartime work was expensive and Halliburton only recovered "a few cents on the dollar" for fuel costs. "Four types of fuel are being purchased: gasoline, kerosene, LPG and diesel," Hall said in a statement. These fuels had different prices, she said, but gave no details. "It is expensive to purchase, ship and deliver fuel into a wartime situation, especially when you are limited by short duration contracting," she said. "The costs for the fuel are 'pass-through' costs because Halliburton only recovers a few cents on the dollar for this expense," Hall said. Cheney was Halliburton's CEO for five years before running for vice-president in 2000. Waxman wrote earlier this month to the White House Office of Management and Budget to complain that Halliburton's subsidiary was overcharging for petroleum products, saying it was billing an average price of $1.59 a gallon. A Waxman spokeswoman said new information the lawmaker has received since then was broken down into gasoline from Turkey and gasoline from Kuwait, revealing the price for gasoline imported from Kuwait to be much higher. Halliburton was charging only $1.22 per gallon to import gasoline from Turkey into Iraq, Waxman and Dingell said.
These guys hate govenment spending unless they can make a buck off of it. U.S. National - AFP Halliburton says KBR unit revenue profit, sales soar HOUSTON, United States (AFP) - US oil industry services giant Halliburton said Thursday its Kellogg Brown and Root unit's profits rose four-fold and sales leapt 80 percent, boosted by work in Iraq (news - web sites). Profits from the unit's operations soared to 49 million dollars in the three months to September from 12 million dollars a year earlier, helped by "government services activity in the Middle East," Halliburton said. KBR, the engineering and construction division that netted a no-bid government contract to help rebuild Iraq's shattered oil industry, also posted an 80-percent jump in sales to 2.3 billion dollars. Iraq-related work by KBR produced revenue of 900 million dollars in the three-month period and delivered an operating profit of 34 million dollars, it said. KBR's results boosted the entire Halliburton group, of which Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) was chief executive from 1995 to 2000. Halliburton sales rose 39 percent to 4.1 billion dollars in the third quarter. "This increase is largely attributable to additional activity in Engineering and Construction Group government service projects, including work in the Middle East," Halliburton said. But net profit at the group fell to 58 million dollars or 13 cents a share from a year-earlier net profit of 94 million dollars or 22 cents a share, the group said. The profit was hit by a 34-million-dollar net loss from discontinued operations and by a 77-million-dollar charge related to a Texas court finding against a subsidiary for breaching confidentiality agreements. Overall, US government contracts for Iraqi reconstruction given to Halliburton are now worth some two billion dollars and could go higher, the army said last month. The deals have been sharply criticized by some members of Congress, especially because some were awarded without competitive bids. The contract to rehabilitate Iraqi oil fields has been revised upward to 948 million dollars, army spokesman Dan Carlson said. A separate 10-year army field support contract to Halliburton awarded in 2001 has been boosted to one billion dollars, the spokesman added. Halliburton chief executive David Lesar, meanwhile, is fending off Democratic lawmakers' accusations that the group overcharged the US government for imported gasoline in Iraq. The US government pays Halliburton between 1.62 and 1.70 dollars for each gallon of gasoline it imports from Kuwait, including a 91- to 99-cent transportation fee, according to Democratic representatives Henry Waxman and John Dingell. But Waxman and Dingell said they had been assured by industry experts it was possible to bring gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq for between 15 cents and 25 cents a gallon. "The overcharging by Halliburton is so extreme that one expert has privately called it 'highway robbery,'" the lawmakers said. Lesar has rejected the allegations, arguing that Halliburton had become a "political target" because of Cheney's past involvement with the company. Cheney has denied any role in Halliburton's Iraq contracts. link
Considering their former boss is the Vice President of the United States, the war was started on their industry's behalf and their contracts were awarded without bids, why is anyone surprised? What's really sad is that flag-waving corporations like Halliburton are siphoning money away from those who should really have it: the soldiers. Real patriotic.
I wish they would pay almost $2.00 for a gallon and sell it for $.15 here in the US. I think it would be cheaper to reinstate the draft and make the Army/Navy/Marines ship and guard it at this rate. But at least Halliburton had record profits this year...
I remember seeing an executive for either gasohol or solar power talking about how we spend a dollar a gallon in excess military spending just to have "cheap" gasoline. I guess we could call it welfare for the o/g industry.
