U.S. ends Halliburton Iraq oil deal

U.S. ends Halliburton Iraq oil deal
Wed 31 December, 2003 07:27

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military energy unit has announced that it is taking over the task of providing fuel for Iraq, ending a Pentagon deal with Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton amid allegations of price gouging by the Texas-based energy services giant.

In its Wednesday editions, The Washington Post quoted Pentagon officials as saying that the change had been under discussion for months and that the timing was not related to allegations against Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), which was awarded a no-bid contract in March to rebuild Iraq's oil industry.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said that a draft audit found evidence that KBR may have overcharged U.S. taxpayers $61 million (34 million pounds) to supply fuel to Iraq from Kuwait.

Halliburton strongly denies wrongdoing. Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.