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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Tuesday, June 22, 2004.
Halliburton denies N665 million Nigerian
gas project bribery scandal
By Charles Okonji
Snr Business Correpondent
(With agency report)
Halliburton has dissociated
itself from the $5 million (about N665 million) bribery scandal, which was claimed to have
been paid to the former Chairman of KBR, a part owner of TSKJ, Mr. Albert
Stanley, to enable the company execute the gas trains of Nigerian
Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Recent report on the scandal disclosed
that French investigators had uncovered evidence, showing that about $5
million of payments related to the Nigerian project were deposited into a
Swiss bank account controlled by Stanley.
It also disclosed that Swiss account,
which belonged to Stanley, received between three per cent and five per
cent of the $180 million (about N23 billion) of payments made to TSKJ, a
consortium formed by KBR and three partners, Technip of France, Eni of
Italy and the JGC Corporation of Japan, to carry out work on the Nigeria
project.
Reacting to this claim, Halliburton denied
the report that investigators in France had uncovered how the former
chairman of KBR was trying to enrich himself, stating it had not seen the
documentation of such alleged accounts or transfers.
Halliburton spokesperson, Ms Wendy Hall,
said: “We have not seen the documentation of such alleged accounts or
transfers. Halliburton never authorised any such accounts, or any
transfers to such accounts.
In France, investigative specialists had
started examining payments to those involved in the scandal, particularly
Elf, the French oil company. Some officials of Elf were accused of being
at the centre of the bribery
Investigators in the United States are
also examining accusations that KBR, made illegal payment of about $180
million in the 1990s to win a contract to build a natural gas complex in
Nigeria.
However, Halliburton, which said its
representatives had recently met with Reynaud van Ruymbeke, the French
magistrate investigating the payments, stated that it did not violate the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits US companies from paying
bribes to win business abroad.
The payments in the Nigeria project are
said to have been made from 1995 to 2002, but were initiated before the
M.W. Kellogg Company, a unit of Dresser Industries, was absorbed into
Halliburton through its acquisition of Dresser in 1998
Kellogg, which was part of the original
TSKJ venture, was combined with Brown & Root to form KBR.
Stanley retired from KBR last year and
presently works as a consultant for the company and maintains an office
at its headquarters in Houston.
United States of American Vice President, Mr. Dick Cheney, was
Halliburton's chief executive at the time of its acquisition of Dresser,
before stepping down from the company in 2000.
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