Halliburton seeks investors, eyes $80 bln in projects

US oil giant Halliburton is eyeing around $80 billion in projects worldwide over the next five years and re-thinking its exit of Iraq, chief executive Dave Lesar said today during his first press conference since moving to Dubai.Lesar revealed Halliburton was in negotiations to re-enter the Iraq market just a month after selling its stake in controversial reconstruction giant KBR.Halliburton is "in discussions with customers about re-entering the market in Iraq," he said.

However, Lesar denied the company would at any point in the future seek to diversify its interests so as to compete with KBR, which until April was a company subsidiary.KBR has come under heavy criticism for overcharging the US army for services it has carried out in Iraq. The company provides food, shelter, laundry services and transport to US forces.The chief executive also suggested George Bush's pledge to move the US away from dependence on Middle East oil was pre-emptive.He said: "You cannot suspend the laws of economics and the Middle East will always be at the heart of crude oil supplies."While he did concede that the US was increasingly looking towards the gas market to satisfy its energy needs, he maintained that the US would continue to play an important role in Halliburton's energy services.Lesar said the company was looking to find major investors for its eastern hemisphere operation."One of my goals would be to find a set of investors, or investor, interested in taking a longer-term investment in the company," he said.As part of its expansion, Lesar said the company would add around 6,000 staff to its eastern hemisphere operation by the end of the year, of which "a significant proportion will be nationals."Halliburton announced in March it planned to move its CEO and corporate headquarters from Houston, Texas, in the US to Dubai, claiming it wanted to be closer to its most profitable markets.Over 38% of Halliburton's $13 billion oil field services revenue last year stemmed from sources in the eastern hemisphere, where the firm has 16,000 of its 45,000 employees. Source