Halliburton Profits Rise Sharply

The Iraq War and ridiculously high gas prices may be hurting most Americans, but for Halliburton, these are contributing to enormous profits. The company released figures on Thursday showing their second quarter net income has nearly doubled over the same period last year. This year's second quarter net income was $591 million, compared with $392 million for the second quarter of 2005. The overall revenue for this quarter was $5.5 billion, up from $4.97 billion a year ago.

In the first six months of 2006, Halliburton has reported net income of $1 billion. In the first six months of 2005, they had a net income of $757 million. Halliburton officials said the rise in net income was due to the strong demand for, and the higher prices charged for oil and gas. While many Americans are forgoing many things just to be able to put gas in their car, Halliburton is recording outrageous profits. Somehow, this just doesn't seem to be right. The
energy services division of Halliburton shows revenue of $3.1 billion, an increase of 26% over a year ago.

Halliburton has also been awarded $10 billion in government contracts in Iraq. Many of these contracts were handed out on a no-bid basis. It obviously helps to have your ex-CEO elected to be vice-president. Halliburton has around 50,000 employees working in the mideast, providing food, water, shelter, laundry services, and other logistical support.

Evidently, it is finally sinking in to this administration, that it may not have been smart to award such large no-bid contracts to a company with ties to the White House. The Army has announced that after years of complaints, they are going rebid the multi-billion dollar contract. Does anyone believe that Halliburton won't again wind up with the contract? They are just too good at making money off the misery of others.