Oh. My. God. This cannot be a coincidence. Halliburton buys top oil well firefighting company.

[TalkingDog]

3 weeks ago.....


http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/halliburton-snaps-up-boots-and-coots/19435689/

The company certainly has a distinguished history. It has been critical in dealing with many well fires, including those from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. But given its relatively small size, Boots & Coots has been at a disadvantage. As a result, the stock price has been mostly lackluster over the years.


Boots & Coots has two core businesses. First, there is Pressure Control, which involves prevention and risk-control services for oil- and gas-well fires and blowouts. A key to this area was the acquisition of John Wright, which developed sophisticated technologies to measure well integrity.

Next, Boots & Coots has a Well Intervention division, which helps enhance production for oil and gas operators. This business is likely to benefit nicely from the trend toward unconventional resource plays (such as extracting energy from shale). Boots & Coots greatly expanded this division with the acquisitions of Oil States International and StassCo.

snip

According to its latest earnings report, Halliburton is upbeat about the prospects for 2010. Actually, it looks like there will be a rebound in North America because of increased demand and rig counts. At the same time, it appears that Halliburton is gaining more market share from its struggling rivals.

[MadMaddie]

1. Wait so Halliburton contracts to repair these oil wells and then

they contract to put out explosions and fires? Anyone smell anything funny?

[Walk away]

2. Where there's Halliburton there's fire!

:grr:

[warren pease]

3. Classic marketing: Create the problem and sell the solution n/t

[glitch]

14. Fits right in with the protection rackets their (former?) boss likes to run. nt

[felinetta]

20. I also smell cover-up. Will this company figure a way to make sure it isn't

Halliburton's responsibility.  Will they say they are not
guilty of anything. 

[notadmblnd]

4. so halliburton does shoddy work, cause well to blow up and sink

then buys company specializing in oil well fires and gets paid to put their fire out. Sounds about right as things go these days.

[JDPriestly]

21. Makes me think of the Iraq/Kuwait War during the GWB administration.

[AzDar]

5. What else are you gonna do when term limits don't allow you to start Wars- For Profits, anymore?

[Tsiyu]

6. It's like living in Comic Book Land

when you start to dig a little deeper, isn't it?

Where's the SuperHero to rescue us?


:shrug:

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Beetwasher]

8. So Can We Assume Their Might Be A Lot More Oil Well Disasters In The Near Future?

I think we ought to be able to make that assumption.

It's at least a working theory. Let's see how it pans out.

Nice catch! I'll be watching!

[obxhead]

26. It would lead me to think we will have no additional regulation in our

future, which will lead to further failures of these platforms by the tiny financial shortcuts they take, which will inevitably lead to further accidents requiring cleanup.

[Beetwasher]

31. Then You Haven't Been Paying Attention

If you think there will not be more regulations after the aftermath of the spill in the Gulf.

[obxhead]

33. Maybe

I guess we'll get some token regulations added, most likely with loopholes large enough you could tow an oil rig through.

I'm not holding my breathe for any serious regulation to come of this event.

[Beetwasher]

36. You're Biased

So really, yr opinion is irrelevant.

[obxhead]

37. I suppose I am a bit biased from watching 30 years

of deregulation and corporate cronyism. My bias is based on precedent, not hope. Irrelevant as it may or may not be.

[Dr Morbius]

9. So, youse wanna buy "fire insurance" or what? (nt)

[Morning Dew]

16. "Sure would be a shame if somethin' happened to your beautiful oil field." n/m

[Arctic Dave]

10. Halliburton bought out B&C a long time ago.

RIP Red Adair

[Moosepoop]

25. Really? When?

According to this (dated April 9, 2010), the merger isn't supposed to happen until this summer.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/halliburton-establishes-new-product-service-line-announces-agreement-to-acquire-boots-coots-and-combine-with-current-assets-2010-04-09?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Under the merger agreement, Boots & Coots stockholders will receive $3.00 per share for each share of Boots & Coots common stock they hold, comprised of $1.73 in cash and $1.27 in Halliburton common stock, subject to election, proration features and an exchange ratio based on Halliburton's five-day average share price prior to closing as further described in the merger agreement. The Boards of Directors of both Halliburton and Boots & Coots have approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the summer of 2010, subject to regulatory approvals, approval by Boots & Coots' stockholders and other conditions.

[Arctic Dave]

34. Oops, my bad. I consulted my "all things Halliburton" guy.

He said that B&C and KBR have been in partnership for decades but were never actually the same company. He said, this is why you never seen one without the other.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. This should probably be mass mailed to journalists everywhere and hope there's a REAL

professional somewhere who gets it.


really stomach turning.......
wow
.
.
.
.
.


I feel a little shell shocked, actually. Very, seriously. Shell shocked.

[Kablooie]

12. An interesting correlation that warrants investigation, but correlation does not insure causation.

Let's not jump into Limbaugh like accusations without evidence.

[glowing]

13. No, in a normal main street ethical thinking way... It is ridiculous. Its unthinkable

to cause such devastation within your neighborhood just because... However, this is Dick Chaney's baby. AND nothing would surprise me in the slightest. One side takes short cuts, the other side insures payment on clean up. Big Oil has got to be busted up. Its the reason we are in two wars we don't belong in... Saddam was a sadistic bastard installed back in the day (remember the Rumsfeld pic)... When he wouldn't play with the oil cartel of OPEC, the oil boys were pissed off. They wanted to increase the price of oil and couldn't when Saddam changed the price every other day. The whole kuwait invasion was about Kuwait stealing oil from Iraq's pipe lines.... Sr. Bush indicated that he'd look the other way while Saddam took care of business.... AND lied... kind of like that "read my lips, no new taxes" shit he pulled.

These top ass holes are all about power achieved mainly thru money and that whole cause the effect, push for a big reaction... AND then we lose our constitution. I'm not saying it was on purpose... but if the company takes short cuts and dose shoddy work, then its eventually going to happen.

[nxylas]

22. Wouldn't surprise me either, but Kablooie is right

It could just be a coincidence. Presence of a motive is not sufficient in itself to prove a crime, though it ought to arouse suspicion.

[axollot]

28. True but that's why proper investigations need to be performed.

Haliburton was doing similar maintenance August 2009 in the Timor Sea when an explosion caused a similar leak that wasnt repaired for 10 weeks, the damage however, lives on. It reeks of barely legal business practices and it wouldnt be the 1st time Haliburton should have been investigated.
Cheers
Sandy

[PerpetuallyDazed]

15. So, is Boots & Coots involved in this explosion? Googling found this:

Which is true?


From "http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/bp-offshore-oil-rig-explosion">Popular Mechanics": "Blowouts happen four to five times a years," says Bill Markus, vice president of response at the legendary Texas firm of Boots & Coots, "down from 11 to 15 in 2000." Boots & Coots is not working on the Deepwater incident and Markus cautions that he has no specific knowledge of what happened or if it was even a blowout."



From http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-L1NO8Z0YHQ0Y-1">Bloomberg: "Boots & Coots Inc. of Houston and Amarillo, Texas-based GSM Enterprises Inc., two of the companies that extinguished hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops in 1990, have been brought in to help cap the leaks."


Weird!

[Rex]

17. You know, I was wondering if something like this would happen

but I thought 'no that is crazy think, stop'. Halliburton is evil and will fuck the world over if given half a chance (which they proved in Iraq and Afghanistan).

[TransitJohn]

18. There's nothing nefarious about it.

The big oilfield service companies (Halliburton, Schlumberger, Weatherford, Baker-Hughes) are always making acquisitions. Look at the acquisitions within the last year. Baker-Hughes bought BJ Services, Schlumberger acquired GeoServices, Weatherford acquired International Logging....what's happenning is that the thinking is eventually an operator (oil company) will eventually bid just one contract to bring a well to completion, from spud to production (rig, geosciences, testing, flow optimization, pipeline downstream), instead of 50 contracts. Turnkey.

[IDemo]

19. “The oil and gas industry is so intimately entwined with the economy of disaster -"

“ – both as a root cause behind many disasters and as a beneficiary from them – that it deserves to treated as an honorary adjunct of the disaster-capitalism complex.”

http://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot.com/2010/04/shock-doctrine-of-disaster-capitalism.html

[bc3000]

23. nm

nevermind

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

24. Good Christ this is almost as stupid as the Freepers saying Obama did it on purpose. n/t

[RufusTFirefly]

27. Halliburton is the real-life Sylvester McMonkey McBean

It makes money putting on stars. And it makes money taking those stars off.

[Stinky The Clown]

29. Suuure ..... great theory .......

[bridgit]

30. Since John Wayne - Boots & Coots made no sense as a separate 'private sector' entity...

Since Saddam, how many oil fields have you seen alight by the hundreds & billowing with thick black oil smoke like a Hollywood movie full of oil soaked horses? Boots & Coots makes more sense being sucked up as just another 'asset' by some Byzantine so-called private sector conglomerate 'offering' under one sick, tiny little secret door of an oil soaked tent itself


I like tinfoil as much as anyone else - and as far as tinfoil goes I am able to see the bridge you are building so indeed why? Why not exercise an asset just sitting there. One already paid for. One that could be ticked up, so that the E-Trade babies of the world can have Lindsey over for a glass of cool, drippy milk on the 17th floor overlooking Central Park

And as to whether we *are* talking John Wayne, or no...you'd be hard pressed to find another *that actually thinks that he is* than Dick Cheney of Halliburton. And maybe that is the downside to the coffins we share ~

^

^

^

[The Damned]

32. MULDER! SCULLY!

Got on this!!!

[Fire1]

35. Anti-conspiracy theorists will say it's just that. Coincidence. n/t