Halliburton Watching $300 Million Slip Away

America's oil field services power house, Halliburton, could be deprived of as much as $300 million in future payments for its work in Iraq because of a billing dispute with the US military.

The Pentagon said this week that it would withhold 15 per cent from any invoices that Halliburton submits after March 31 until final prices for the work are agreed. The Pentagon has called for the suspension after its own auditors recently warned about "systemic" problems in the company's cost controls.

The charges in question stem from a logistics assignment known as "Logcap III", under which the company's Kellogg Brown & Root division served meals to US troops in Iraq and Kuwait. The total withholdings could reach about $300 million over the next six months, according to Pentagon estimates.