Halliburton In Iran Despite Sanctions

Newshog Note It's been pointed out to me that the story I linked below is from 2005. I can only apologize for my mistake and tell you I will be more careful in future - it came up on the aggregator I use as brand new and I didn't check the dateline.

Even so, I would argue it is still a relevant story at a time when the US is pressuring other nations in the UN Security Council to approve more stringent sanctions on Iran. The story said Halliburton would withdraw from Iran when the contract was over and the contract was for three years. Moreover, it would appear any federal investigation for deliberate use of a loophole to avoid sanctions has fizzled.

Regards, C

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NBC's Investigative Unit has video of a Halliburton drilling operation with Halliburton logos everywhere - but it's in Iran, where the company gained a contract in January to drill in the massive Pars gas field.

"I am baffled that any American company would want to have employees operating in Iran," says Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "I would think they'd be ashamed."

Halliburton says the operation — videotaped by NBC News — is entirely legal. It's run by a subsidiary called "Halliburton Products and Services Limited," based outside the U.S. In fact, the law allows foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations to do business in Iran under strict conditions.

..."I am formally announcing my intention to cut off all trade and investment with Iran," announced President Bill Clinton in 1995.

Sources close to the Halliburton investigation tell NBC News that after that announcement, Halliburton decided that business with Iran, then conducted through at least five companies, would all be done through a subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

"It's gotten around the sanctions and the very spirit and reasons for the sanctions," says Victor Comras, a former State Department expert on sanctions.

For Halliburton to have done this legally, the foreign subsidiary operating in Iran must be independent of the main operation in Texas. Yet, when an NBC producer approached managers in Iran, he was sent to company officials in Dubai. But they said only Halliburton headquarters in Houston could talk about operations in Iran. Still, Halliburton maintains its Iran subsidiary does make independent business decisions.

Now Halliburton is under federal investigation - the focus being on whether it was their intention all along to evade sanctions. Congress is looking at closing the loophole in the law.

Halliburton says they will pull out of Iran - in three years when the contract ends.

But I've a question - if their old boss Dick Cheney manages to get his way and the US attacks Iran, would Halliburton get government compensation for it's destroyed equipment and potential profits? If not, then maybe they know for sure something the rest of us can only wonder about concerning the likelihood of such an attack.