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Halliburton targets $80b business in next 5 years

Speaking at a Press briefing, Ahmed Lofty, Halliburton's senior vice-president, Eastern Hemisphere, said the company aimed to grow total revenues in the hemisphere to the point where it was contributing 50 per cent of the company's overall revenue, up from 38 per cent now. The Middle East will be a 'serious part of this business', he said.

The Eastern Hemisphere is a definition used by the oil industry and refers to all countries beyond the US, Canada, and South America. "Sixty per cent of the 100 mega projects in the world are in the Eastern Hemisphere and the Middle East is the biggest proportion of that," said Lofty. The company recorded revenue of $12.9 billion in 2006, with net income of $2.3 billion.

In March, Halliburton's chairman, president and CEO, Dave Lesar announced that the company would be opening a corporate office in Dubai. He moved here last weekend. Yesterday he confirmed that negotiations for new premises were ongoing. "We are negotiating on a couple of premises for our headquarters now," he said, without going into details.

Halliburton, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is in the process of registering with the DIFC. "We hope to complete the process very soon," said Laser, adding that a "dual listing would be a long-term goal."

However, "the markets need to mature a little bit," he said. "We have to be satisfied that trading volumes would be larger than the companies on the exchange have today. It is a matter of waiting."

Despite the fact that Halliburton wants to grow its business in the Middle East, "the US is still a priority," said. "But the growth opportunity in the Middle East is larger than in other part of the world," he said.

Halliburton is involved in numerous projects around the Gulf and is considering doing business in Iraq, which, according to recently revised estimates, could have the second largest reserves of oil in the world. "We are not doing any business right now" said Lesar, but we are negotiating with customers who want to do business there. However, he added: "We have to be satisfied with security."

Lesar also said that generating more business from the Eastern Hemisphere would enable the company to have a "more balanced portfolio". This is because the Western Hemisphere is primarily a gas market while the Eastern Hemisphere is primarily an oil one.

National oil companies (NOCs) and independent oil companies (IOCs) have to spend a tremendous amount to ensure that oil supply meets demand, said Lesar, and spoke about the new technology and drilling techniques that these companies were seeking. He also said that because the Middle East is the world's lowest cost producer of crude oil the region "will always be at the heart of the world‚s oil production."

He said the company‚s total capital investment in 2007 would be $1.2 billion of which „a great deal of this capital spend would be going to the Middle East. "About 6000 employees are expected to be hired in the Eastern Hemisphere this year, out of a total of about 14,000, he said. The aim is to recruit most of the staff locally.

As for the company's long-term strategy, Lesar said: "We have a long-term strategic goal to grow the company 20 per cent each year for the next few years." Halliburton has announced an aggressive acquisition strategy. It is also opening a technology centre in India in July and a technology and manufacturing facility in Singapore in December or January.