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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sylvester80 who wrote (400922)	4/30/2003 10:40:53 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769669

GO HALLIBURTON!!!!!!!!!!!! NEW YORK — Halliburton Co. (HAL), the world's No. 2 oilfield services company, Tuesday said first-quarter earnings rose as results from increased North American drilling activity offset international results. The company's international results were hurt by war and political unrest in key markets such as Venezuela (search), Nigeria (search) and the Middle East. Houston-based Halliburton, which was hired in March by the U.S. Defense Department to control Iraqi well fires (search) and repair the country's oil infrastructure, said its net income rose to $43 million, or 10 cents per share, from $22 million, or five cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 3 percent to $3.1 billion from last year. Analysts estimated earnings per share between 17 cents and 23 cents with an average of 19 cents, according to Thomson First Call. Wall Street had not expected the Iraqi contracts to add much profit to the first quarter, since the award came late in the period. However the contracts have drawn plenty of scrutiny from public interest groups and other critics, who complain the company benefits unfairly from political connections. The contract also was awarded without being put up for public bid. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton until he stepped down in 2000 to join President George W. Bush's campaign. Halliburton and the Defense Department have said the company was chosen because it had equipment and people in the region and putting the contract out to bid would have slowed response to the fires. Halliburton has a long history of military logistical work with the U.S. The Defense Department tapped Halliburton engineering subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) subsidiary in November to develop a plan to fight oil fires in Iraq, should they break out after a U.S. invasion. In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called upon KBR to implement the plan as U.S. forces drove across Iraq. So far, the company has been assigned fire fighting and other oil infrastructure projects worth about $50 million, according to the Defense Department. foxnews.com