U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton between 1995-2000. - Reuters

WASHINGTON, United States (AP):

Halliburton Company has said it will agree to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) request for more time to investigate possible bribery and corruption in connection with the company's natural gas operations in Nigeria.

The oilfield services conglomerate disclosed the SEC's recent request for a so-called tolling agreement in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Such an accord will put off the time when the legal clock started running, or tolling, on the case under the statute of limitations - generally five years for such investigations.

The agreement also gives Houston-based Halliburton more time to make its case to the SEC against possible civil charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or to work out a settlement with the agency. The act makes it unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business.

"In September 2006, the SEC requested that we enter into a tolling agreement with respect to its investigation. We anticipate that we will enter into an appropriate tolling agreement with the SEC," Halliburton said in its filing.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined comment yesterday.

Both the SEC and the U.S. Justice Department have been investigating an alleged US$180 million (euro141 million) bribery scheme in Nigeria involving the predecessor company of Halliburton engineering and construction subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, and three other companies from France, Italy and Japan.

The allegations centre on a contract for a US$4 billion (currently euro3.1 billion) Nigerian liquefied natural gas plant that was awarded in 1995 to a consortium of the four companies.

Fired consultants

Halliburton fired two consultants, including former KBR chairman A. Jack Stanley, for violating the company's business code of conduct by receiving "improper personal benefits" related to the consortium's construction of the Nigerian plant.

A former KBR employee has asked Congress to investigate what he claims are Halliburton's efforts to cover up violations of the anti-corruption law and to mislead federal investigators.

David A. Smith said in a filing with the SEC in September that he mistakenly received emails from a company attorney on how to handle federal investigations - notes he says were intended for David R. Smith, a vice-president with Halliburton's tax group.

The emails, he said, focused on how Halliburton would defend itself against bribery charges.

David A. Smith, who says he owns a single share of Halliburton's common stock, said in his SEC filing that David R. Smith "was being asked to weigh in on how to explain away the source of the bribes paid to Nigerian officials."

Halliburton has said that Smith's allegations are groundless.

The company, whose chief executive was U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000, has been criticised since the beginning of the war in Iraq in connection with multibillion-dollar government contracts.

In a report released last month, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that KBR, which provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, abused federal rules to conceal details of its contract performance.