Is This A Mistake Headling About Halliburton---- Read This

[Jon8503]

Halliburton to Wind Down Iran Operations

Fri Jan 28, 4:28 PM ET

Add to My Yahoo! Business - AP

By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer

HOUSTON - The oil services conglomerate Halliburton Co. will wind down its operations in Iran and seek to separate its engineering and construction subsidiary KBR from the parent, chairman and CEO Dave Lesar said Friday.

Lesar made the disclosures Friday to analysts in a conference call after the company disclosed its fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $201 million from a loss of $947 million in the same period a year ago.

Halliburton does business in Iran through a foreign-owned subsidiary, which is allowed as long as Americans don't participate in or direct that business. But a federal grand jury is investigating whether the Houston-based company or its executives deliberately violated a U.S. ban on trade with Iran.

Lesar said services the company provides in Iran aren't illegal, but they are "miniscule" in comparison with the company's other work and that Iran's business environment "is not conducive to our overall strategies and objectives."

"We have decided to wind down our operations there while fulfilling our existing contracts and commitments," Lesar said on the conference call.

Shares fell $2.67, or 6 percent, to close at $40.84 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) — still near the high end of their 52-week range of $26.45 to $43.58.

Lesar told analysts Halliburton will return to Iran if U.S. sanctions are lifted in the future and more of its major customers go there.

"It's not a huge market for them," Dan Pickering, an analyst with Pickering Energy Partners, said of the Iran pullout. "Halliburton's probably getting tired of being a punching bag on various issues and Iran was one that they could eliminate and are doing so."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050128/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_halliburton

[peacetalksforall]

1. They are full of the sewer stuff.

They are just getting ready for Iran, Syria, Cuba,and Venezuela.

[Career Prole]

2. Guess it would be telegraphing the punch if they started taking out

replacement-cost policies on all their equipment in Iran, so they'll just "pull out" instead and pretend they don't want anything to do with the country.
I'm sure they'll be perfectly positioned for the reconstruction contracts after the smoke clears, though.

[On the Road]

3. This is What They Nailed

that evil Marc Rich for. And for which he fled the country.

[Moderator]

4. Jon8503

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator