Halliburton

"Amid rising tensions between Iran and the US, five missiles were fired at an “American oil company,” according to the Iranian Fars News website. The report is based on another Iraqi report that said Monday morning that rockets had been fired at a company linked to Halliburton. How the website knew this is unclear and photos were not available from the scene. It was also unclear who fired the alleged rockets; it could also be blamed on ISIS.

However, the alleged rocket attack fits a pattern of dozens of such attacks on bases housing US troops and against the American Embassy. In 2018, there were also attacks on US facilities in Basra, and the oil fields were largely evacuated of some foreign workers. The US evacuated its consulate in Basra and warned Iran and its proxies against attacks. Social justice protesters in October and November 2019 blocked roads to the oil fields around Basra." (4/6/2020)

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"This license authorized the company's United States personnel to engage in transactions relating to PSL Energy Service's oil drilling equipment. In response to questions from The New York Times, OFAC said that PSL Energy Services, a Scottish oil services company, had removed the equipment from Iran after completing a project there. It was in negotiations for the sale of a majority of its stock to Halliburton. Because the equipment was among the PSL's assets and had been used in Iran, it was deemed 'Iranian-origin goods' under American regulations, and thus a license was needed to allow Halliburton to deal with the equipment in the future. Shortly after OFAC issued the license, Halliburton completed the deal to acquire PSL Energy Services and announced it, records show." (New York Times, "Licenses Granted to U.S. Companies Run the Gamut," 12/24/10)

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"This license authorized the company to engage in transactions that ultimately would allow it to withdraw from Iran. The withdrawal came after the company was criticized for doing business in Iran's lucrative energy sector through a loophole that allows foreign subsidiaries of United States companies to do business in sanctioned countries or with sanctioned entities, activities that would be forbidden for the American parent." (New York Times, "Licenses Granted to U.S. Companies Run the Gamut," 12/24/10)

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"Halliburton, former Vice President Cheney's old company, provided oil and gas drilling services to Iran through foreign subsidies. After a political furor erupted over the work, the company announced it would do no new business in Iran, and it exited the country altogether in 2007. While still operating in Iran, Halliburton won huge contacts from the federal government, including a no-bid contract to restore Iraq's oil sector, as did its subsidiary at the time, Kellogg Brown & Root." From 2000-2009, the company was the recipient of $27.1 billion US federal funds.  The company has withdrawn its investments from Iran. (The New York Times, "Profiting from Iran, and the US," 3/6/2010)

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"More importantly, even the threat of unilateral sanctions has been effective as recently as last year. As state after state has ramped up efforts to divest pension funds from companies invested in Iran, and as S 970, the Smith-Durbin Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, has garnered support in Congress, American companies like General Electric, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes with subsidiaries operating in Iran have rethought the wisdom of doing business with one of our nation's most dangerous enemies. And as the United States has contemplated additional unilateral banking sanctions on Iran, banks across Europe have ratcheted back their exposure to the Islamic Republic, with some pulling out entirely." (AEI, "The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007," Danielle Pletka, April 21, 2008)

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"A top executive of Halliburton Company told lawmakers here yesterday that the corporation does not intend to resume business in Iran now that it has completed its current contracts. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee investigating American business ties to Iran, a Halliburton vice president and corporate secretary, Sherry Williams, said that when company officials decided to leave Iran in 2005, 'We recognized that we would not be able to go back in' under federal law." (The New York Sun, "Halliburton Says It Has No Plans To Go Back To Iran," Russell Berman, May 1, 2007)