Halliburton eyes Mideast growth

From Financial Times Germany:

The world's biggest oil services firm is targeting 60 contracts worth $80bn over the next five years, many of them from the ''eastern hemisphere''.

Halliburton, the oil services firm that is moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai, aims to achieve a 50-50 split between its businesses in the western hemisphere and the markets of the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Dave Lesar, chief executive, said the company, which does most of its business in the US, Canada and Latin America, hopes to expand its Middle East operations rapidly.

The world's biggest oil services firm is targeting 60 contracts worth $80bn over the next five years, with 75 per cent of them coming from the "eastern hemisphere" - many from the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia.

These regions currently only account for 35-40 per cent of global spending on oil servicing contracts.

Mr Lesar said Iraq could feature in the company's expansion plans. He was in talks recently with companies considering developing Iraqi reserves. Halliburton's former KBR unit, the Pentagon's largest contractor in Iraq, attracted scrutiny for the quality and pricing of its work for the US army. Dick Cheney, US vice-president, preceded Mr Lesar as chief executive.

Mr Lesar said he would consider taking on contracts in Iraq, which straddles the world's second largest oil reserves, if security concerns could be met.

"The focus [of our industry] is moving to this part of the world," he told reporters at a briefing in Dubai.