Halliburton wants to build facility at BK Wharf to service oilfields

Nov 20, 2019 News

A company that is fraught with corruption, bribery, war crimes, bid rigging and other allegations across continents and includes figures as powerful as former US Vice President, Dick Cheney, is in Guyana. It has set up a local subsidiary—Halliburton Guyana Inc.

Halliburton’s Office is located on the third floor of this Lot 103 Carmichael Street, building minus any identifying signage

The company has since applied for permits to set up a facility at a Kingston wharf meant to service the emerging oil fields.
It has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for the necessary ‘Environmental Authorizations’ to set up a liquid mud plant to supply the offshore oil exploration and drilling operations.
According to an advertisement placed with the State-owned daily yesterday, the plant will be set up at 10-13 Mud Lot Kingston—a wharf facility owned by BK International and has seen its facilities being used in recent times by a number of oil related companies.
The company as part of the process will now have to await a 28-day process where objections to the venture can be lodged with the EPA.
Halliburton, the parent company, has nonetheless commenced advertising for staff for its “Georgetown Offices,” the most recent being published on Thursday last (November 14) for a Site Resource Planner.
Its Guyana office is advertised internationally as Lot 2, Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown—the Law Offices of Cameron and Shepherd, led by Senior Counsel, Ralph Ramkarran.
That Law firm had incorporated the company on behalf of the principals.
Halliburton Guyana Inc was registered as a ‘Local, Commercial, Private Company’ with three directors and 20,000,000 shares.
According to the company’s records, it was incorporated by Karl Hennesse on October 6, 2015.
The other directors at the time were Halliburton Senior Vice President Myrtle Jones, said to be a foreigner, and Halliburton Vice President and Treasurer, Timothy McKeon.
Halliburton’s Senior Director, now Vice President, Bruce Metzinger—another foreign national—was appointed Company Secretary.
Each of these persons has since ceased functioning as Directors with Halliburton Guyana Inc. but remain with the parent company.
Hennesse, according to the Company’s records, ceased being a Director in September 2016 at which time, Pablo Alonso Suarez, was appointed as the General Manager.
On January 1 (New Years Day), the following year, the company changed its office address to Lot 103 Carmichael Street, in Georgetown.
In October last year, there was another change in Directors where Jones and McKeon ceased holding Office and Juan Diego Escudero Sandoval was appointed.
Neil Howard Atchinson was also later appointed a Company Director.
His Public Linked-in Profile lists him as Director; Deepwater Well Operations, Guyana Halliburton Guyana, responsible for all contracted operations “in Exxon-Mobil’s ultra-deepwater Staebrock (sic) exploration and Liza development Field, water depths 1700-2600m.”
It says too, “also responsible for country start-up in Guyana,” including the construction of a major six-acre base and maintenance/office facility.
Carlos Alberto Leon Epinosa, Halliburton’s former Colombia, Country Manager, whose addressed in Guyana was also listed as the newly registered Carmichael Street Office, was appointed Director.
Scandalous Track Record
Among the plethora of scandals involving the company are bribery charges in Nigeria—which have now turned into an ethical case study.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused a similar (to Halliburton Guyana) subsidiary of Halliburton—Kellogg, Brown & Root, (KBR)—of bribing Nigerian government officials with US$180M to secure a US$6B construction contract.
The SEC claims that bribes began in 1994 and continued for a decade.
The SEC had also charged KBR and Halliburton with book and record violations and internal control violations, all related to the bribery.
According to the case study, in February, 2009, Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay US$177M in disgorgement and KBR was charged to pay US$402M in criminal fines.
Albert Stanley, a former CEO of KBR, pleaded guilty to the bribery scheme and was sentenced in February, 2012 to two and a half years in prison.
Two other former executives were also accused. Nigeria accused Halliburton of the bribery scheme and charged former American Vice President Dick Cheney and nine other executives of Halliburton and KBR with conspiracy and distribution of gratification to public officials. Nigeria subsequently dropped charges against Cheney.
He was also accused of numerous other controversies while he served as US Defense Secretary and as Halliburton’s CEO.
Headquarters in Texas, USA—as is ExxonMobil Guyana’s parent Company—Halliburton has since sold the division and severed its corporate relationship with KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering and construction unit as a part of the company
The company had also made headlines for its culpable role in the infamous Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent massive spill.
The company’s cement modelling system, played a crucial part in cement slurry mix and support decisions—decisions that became a focus for investigations into the explosion on the rig.
The company paid, later, US$1.1B to settle legal claims against it
Halliburton has also been accused of war profiteering in relation to the Iraq war
Residents of Duncan, Oklahoma in the US have also the company for poisoning the ground water with ammonium perchlorate.
US Government investigators also concluded that Halliburton was, in part, to blame for the BP oil spill that flooded into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The company’s history is replete with infractions and payments of fines and other forms of compensation.