The Oklahoman
March 13,2007
Halliburton chief heads for center of business, where money is
Destination Dubai
By Adam Wilmoth
Business Writer
Less than two decades ago, Dubai was little more than a fishing village along the Persian Gulf.
Today, the United Arab Emirates capital is a sprawling metropolis filled with samplings of the world's tallest buildings and most unique architecture.
"Dubai is gorgeous,” said Vince Orza, dean of Oklahoma City University's Meinders School of Business. "It is made for executives. It has great golf courses, enormous shopping centers and five-star properties of every kind. It's a world-class city in every way.”
The city's architecture includes the 1,053-foot-tall Burj Al Arab Hotel, the only seven-star hotel on the planet, and the Burj Dubai tower, which is only about two-thirds complete and already has surpassed the world's largest building. Four massive manmade island communities and resorts are under construction on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
Dubai actively has embraced capitalism and Western money and has become home to the Middle East offices of many of the world's largest companies.
The move for Halliburton and other companies to increase their presence in Dubia makes sense because of the growing economies in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Orza said.
"Halliburton does an awful lot of their business in that part of the world, so it makes sense for the same reason that decades ago oil companies moved from Tulsa to Houston,” Orza said. "Tulsa was the oil capital of the world in the '30s and '40s. Then companies moved to the Gulf because that's where the oil was. You go where the money is, and you go where the business is. That's no slight to where you're leaving. It's just an example of how the world changes.”
Dubai's location on the Persian Gulf creates both strategic advantages and disadvantages. The city is among the richest areas in the world for oil and natural gas production and promises to generate many years of business for energy companies who operate in the area.
Dubai also lies just across the Persian Gulf from Iran and is in the back yard of numerous governments and religious and political groups that strongly oppose America and Western interests.
Industry analyst Pierre E. Conner downplayed the safety concerns.
"All these energy companies already have extensive operational exposure to those regions by nature of the proximity of those reserves,” he said. "They already have significant monetary, operational and activity exposure to all those places. In some respect, having management closer and more frequently involved may be able to mitigate that risk by being involved and seeing areas of concern.”
The move also could have political and public relations consequence, especially for a company such as Halliburton that has been publicly maligned for its contracts with the U.S. military and other supposed connections with the Bush administration.
"I don't think Halliburton worries a great deal about political issues or criticism,” Orza said. "They have a job to do, and they do it well. If people don't like them, that is a cost of doing business. Like it or not, they're very good at what they do. That's one of the reasons nations like the UAE seek them out.”
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