Halliburton shares tumble on spill report

[maddezmom]

Source: MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Halliburton Co. shares slumped nearly 15% Thursday after the presidential commission investigating BP PLC’s blowout in the Gulf of Mexico said the oil-services company may share some of the blame for the disaster.

A letter from the commission’s lead lawyer said the investigation found that Halliburton /quotes/comstock/13*!hal/quotes/nls/hal (HAL 31.68, -2.74, -7.96%) may have known the cement mix used to seal the Macondo was inadequate for the task.

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Halliburton and BP both had results in March “showing that a very similar foam-slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data,” according to a letter to the full commission from Fred Bartlit, the commission’s chief counsel.

The letter, which highlights the panel’s preliminary findings, also said that Halliburton and perhaps BP “should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well.”

The letter comes ahead of a two-day public hearing on Nov. 8 and 9 to be held by Bartlit and the commission, with includes Bob Graham and William Reilly as co-chairmen, as well as Frances Beinecke, Donald Boesch, Terry Garcia, Cherry Murray and Fran Ulmer on the roster.



Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/halliburton-down-on-letter-from-oil-spill-probe-2010-10-28

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Inquiry Puts Halliburton in a Familiar Hot Seat
By BARRY MEIER and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: October 28, 2010
In recent years, the giant energy services company has found itself under scrutiny over allegations that it performed shoddy, overpriced work for the United States military in Iraq, bribed Nigerian officials to win energy contracts and did brisk business with Iran at time when it faced sanctions.

On Thursday, a government investigation panel said that Halliburton might have played an important role in the April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico by supplying cement that the company knew was unstable to BP, which used it to seal the well. Halliburton has repeatedly blamed BP, the owner of the well, of failing to test the cement and making other errors that led to the accident, which killed 11 people and spewed millions of barrels of crude oil into the gulf.

“Halliburton has a history of walking on the energy high beam without a net,” said Chris Ruppel, managing director of capital markets at Execution Noble, an international investment bank. “Because they have been very aggressive, working on very high-profile types of projects, when anything goes wrong, they will be front and center.”

The company, which was led by former Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000, has drawn repeated fire for some of its past actions, mostly involving its Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary, which it finished selling in 2007. Last year, for example, Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay $579 million to settle charges brought by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with bribes that KBR had paid to top Nigerian officials over a decade. The companies still face criminal liability in Nigeria over the episode, which involved contracts to build a liquefied natural gas complex.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/business/29halliburton.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[aquart]

1. But would that be enough to trigger a margin call?

Fall further! Fall harder!

[maddezmom]

2. Halliburton Spill Liability May Rise on BP Well Report

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"This is one of those gotcha moments," Stag said. "It's the kind of evidence you hope will show that someone absolutely knew there was a significant problem."

The evidence may also mean criminal fines for Halliburton if the U.S. Justice Department reaches the same conclusions, said David Uhlmann, former head of the department's environmental crimes division.

"They don't face the same level of fines as BP does," Uhlmann said. "BP will likely pay billions in criminal penalties and billions more in civil penalties, while Halliburton's penalties may run into hundreds of millions, at most $1 billion or $2 billion."



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/10/29/bloomberg1376-LB0FGH0YHQ0X01-29JGJ7IINJQL5PL4LQ2TI4B8RT.DTL

[SpiralHawk]

3. Halliburton = scuzzball RepubliCorp

with scuzzball Republicon Corporate Family Values.

Ptoooey.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Awwwww, what a pity

Maybe Dickhead Cheney is worth less (although we all know he is worthless).:nopity:

[beac]

5. Yes, his Halliburton stocks-- held in "blind" (har-har) trust while he was VP--

might be worth so little he might actually have to cut back on his daily order of puppies to kick and blind kids to trip. Times are tough.

I can't tell you how happy it would make me to see the bottom drop out of that evil company.

[activa8tr]

6. Good one! n/t

[bos1]

7. this will be blamed on Obama too

[OnyxCollie]

8. K&R. nt

[gateley]

9. Well, what goes around, assholes.

I hope this one sticks and does damage -- they've gotten off too easily in the past. Were they the company that installed the faulty showers that electrocuted our service people in Iraq? Regardless, they've got plenty of blood on their hands. Carrying on in the Cheney tradition, no doubt.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. I'm sure the executives sold big and sold short

before this news was released.

They'll be ok. In case you were concerned about them.

:hi: