Halliburton Opens Door To
Middle East Investorss

RUSSELL GOLD and ANDREW CRITCHLOW
Wall Street Journal 23may2007

[More on Halliburton | Cheney]

As part of an effort to grab a growing share of the booming Middle Eastern oil-field-service market, Halliburton Co. Chief Executive David Lesar said he would welcome a Middle East investor taking a "major" equity stake and may dually list its shares in Dubai.

North American 	    $2.03
Europe/Africa/CIS*  $0.56
Middle East/Asia    $0.51
Latin America       $0.29

*Commonwealth of Independent States
source: the company

The statement reflects both Halliburton's interest in the region's rich investors, flush after years of high crude-oil prices, and the company's push to build its core business where most of the world's remaining oil and natural-gas reserves reside.

Middle Eastern money increasingly is targeting Western companies. This week General Electric Co. agreed to sell its plastics business to Saudi Arabia's biggest non-oil company, Saudi Basic Industries Corp., for $11.6 billion. About the same time, a Dubai-controlled investment vehicle became one of the biggest investors in Deutsche Bank AG. Recently, Maan Abdul Wahed al-Sanea, a Saudi tycoon, and another Dubai fund bought large, separate stakes in HSBC Holdings PLC.

While oil-exploration-and-development activity picks up in the Middle East, Halliburton has its work cut out for it trying to make significant inroads against Schlumberger Ltd., the world's largest publicly traded oil-field-service firm by market capitalization. Halliburton is the second-largest oil-field-service firm. Last year, Schlumberger earned 28% of its operating income, or $1.29 billion, in the Middle East and Asia, compared with Halliburton's 15%, or $506 million.

Mr. Lesar is also indirectly addressing market concerns that Halliburton is too heavily reliant on work in North America. The Houston-based company is taking strides to remind investors it generates 40% of its operating income outside of North America, where dropping prices on certain services used to break up the rock in natural-gas wells has hurt its margins.

Halliburton's public efforts to bulk up its business in the Middle East began earlier this year when Mr. Lesar said he would set up an office in Dubai, a semiautonomous state and part of the United Arab Emirates, and spend a portion of the year there. Speaking to reporters in Dubai yesterday, he said: "One of my goals is to find investors interested in taking a long-term position with the company. We would welcome a Middle East investor taking a major equity stake." He also said company officials have held discussions with the government to examine listing Halliburton shares, currently traded in New York, on the Dubai exchange as well.

He also said Halliburton planned to increase its revenue from the Middle East and the Eastern Hemisphere as it targets $80 billion of projects over the next five years. The company plans to hire thousands of Arabs in the region as part of its new strategy to court favor with Middle Eastern governments, Mr. Lesar said. Other big oil-field-service firms, such as Baker Hughes Inc., are also on a hiring binge as demand for services picks up.

—Chip Cummins contributed to this article.

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Dave Lesar Bio 

Chairman of the Board, President
& Chief Executive Officer 

David Lesar joined Halliburton in 1993 and has served the Company in many capacities. Currently, Mr. Lesar is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, one of the world’s largest diversified energy services, engineering and construction companies. Halliburton operates in approximately 100 countries with approximately 100,000 employees worldwide. 

Mr. Lesar served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Halliburton from June 1997 to August 2000. From September 1996 through June 1997, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Brown & Root, Inc., the Halliburton business unit conducting engineering and construction business in the petroleum, forest products, civil, manufacturing, environmental, maintenance and government markets. 

Mr. Lesar also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Halliburton. Before that position, he was Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration for Halliburton Energy Services, a Halliburton business unit. 

Mr. Lesar is a 1978 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his bachelor of science and master of business administration degrees. He serves on the board of directors of the Lyondell Corporation. He is a member of the Upstream Committee of the American Petroleum Institute. 

August 2000 - Present
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

June 1997 - August 2000
President and Chief Operating Officer

September 1996 - June 1997
President and Chief Executive Officer, Brown & Root, Inc.

June 1995 - June 1996
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Halliburton 

December 1993 - June 1995
Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration, Halliburton Energy Services

source: the company 23may2007