U.S. taxpayers footing bill for cheap Iraqi gasoline (Halliburton again) [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2122995

<snip>

"Benzene is cheaper than water here," local journalist Qais Al-Bashir said Friday.

What it is costing American taxpayers is another story.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last April, Iraq's resuscitated oil industry has been unable to produce enough gasoline, cooking oil and other petroleum products to meet the country's needs.

Houston-based Halliburton Co., the contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair the dilapidated energy infrastructure, has been ordered to bring refined products into the country.

So far, U.S. taxpayers have spent some $562 million under the Halliburton contract to bring in gasoline and other fuels and make needed repairs to Iraq's gas distribution network, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, that effort has accounted for nearly half the $1.22 billion worth of work that Halliburton has performed in Iraq since the war.