High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq By DON VAN NATTA Jr., NYTimes

The United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show. …

Gasoline imports are one of the largest costs of Iraqi reconstruction efforts so far. Although Iraq sits on the third-largest oil reserves in the world….

Independent experts who reviewed Halliburton’s percentage of its gas importation contract said the company’s 26-cent charge per gallon of gas from Kuwait appeared to be extremely high.

“I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said Phil Verleger, a California oil economist and the president of the consulting firm PK Verleger LLC. “That’s a monopoly premium — that’s the only term to describe it. Every logistical firm or oil subsidiary in the United States and Europe would salivate to have that sort of contract.”

In March, Halliburton was awarded a no-competition contract to repair Iraq’s oil industry, and it has already received more than $1.4 billion in work. …

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Waxman responded to the latest information on to costs of the Halliburton contract. “It’s inexcusable that Americans are being charged absurdly high prices to buy gasoline for Iraqis and outrageous that the White House is letting it happen,” he said.

Waxman says the White House is ‘letting’ this happen. They are making this happen. mjh

See also: mjh’s weBlog: 2 in House Question Halliburton’s Iraq Fuel Prices October 16, 2003

Two senior Democratic congressmen are questioning whether Halliburton is overcharging the United States government in the procurement of gasoline and other fuel for Iraq, which is now importing oil products to stave off shortages.