Company Overview

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world’s top oil field services companies. It operates has five major operating groups. Its energy services group is divided into four separate units—drilling and formation evaluation, fluid systems, production optimization, and digital and consulting solutions—which collectively do everything from finding oil and gas in the ground, to drilling and maintaining wells, to manufacturing equipment with which to provide the services. In late 2006, Halliburton spun off its engineering and construction group, which operates as Kellogg, Brown & Root, with an IPO. Now a subsidiary of Halliburton, KBR is divided into two units: energy and chemicals and government and infrastructure. KBR works with energy and industrial clients and governments worldwide, for building projects such as chemical plants, highways, prisons, and stadiums; it is one of the largest government contractors in the world. Though KBR’s contracts for projects in Iraq have done wonders for Halliburton’s bottom line, sales are now lower, in part because of conflicts regarding some of those contracts. The spinoff was one step to reduce the company’s exposure. Halliburton picked up several major new contracts in 2006, including a multimillion deal with Saudi Arabia for oilfield development services, as well as contracts for work in Australia, Norway, and Indonesia.

The company made headlines in 2007 when it opened a corporate headquarters office in the United Arab Emirates, and relocated its CEO David Lesar to Dubai. Halliburton was able to create better Middle East relations in the oil industry while growing its business in the region. In 2008, the company offered $3.4 billion to acquire Expro International. Halliburton eventually withdrew the offer when Expro decided it wanted to go with another offer made by a group of private equity firms.