DUBAI, 23 May 2007 — Halliburton is eyeing around $80 billion in projects worldwide over the next five years and rethinking its exit from Iraq, chief executive Dave Lesar said yesterday during his first press conference since moving to Dubai.
“We will shift some 70 percent of our capital investment over the next five years to the Eastern Hemisphere, which includes oil and gas zones in the Middle East, Russia, Africa, the North Sea and East Asia” he said. “We are committed to this part of the world,” Dave Lesar added.
The company announced in March that it has plans to move its CEO and corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai, claiming it wanted to be closer to its most profitable markets. Around 70 percent of that market is outside the Americas, Dave Lesar said, which is one of the reasons the company is relocating to Dubai.
“If you look at a map of global oil and gas reserves, the focus of our business and industry is clearly moving to this part of the world,” he said. Moreover, the Dubai office is closer to the world’s largest oil companies, like Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. But the company’s remaining top executives will probably stay in Houston, although the company plans to hold some of its board meetings in Dubai, Lesar explained.
He said the company would add around 6,000 staff to its eastern hemisphere operation by the end of the year, of which “a significant proportion will be nationals.” In total, the company will hire 14,000 new employees this year.
“We’re looking for young Arab and Asian engineers, technicians and professionals. We have no plan to transfer employees from the Houston office to Dubai, but we will hire locals from here,” he added.
Halliburton seeks major Arab investors and a share listing on Dubai’s new international stock exchange, Lesar further said. “One of my goals would be to find a set of investors, or investor interested in taking a longer-term investment in the company,” he said.