Halliburton Expands With Vanco For Deepwater Exploration Projects

Halliburton has signed an agreement with Vanco Energy Company for the provision of engineering and consulting services in several deepwater regions offshore West Africa. The agreement comes as Vanco, the largest holder of deepwater exploration licenses in Sub-Saharan Africa, prepares for a major drilling program offshore West Africa, beginning in late 2002. The operator expects to drill at least six deepwater exploratory wells offshore Equatorial Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, and Namibia. In addition to the engineering and consulting services agreement,

Halliburton is providing Vanco with a LNG project screening study, software licenses, and screening tools. According to Dave Lesar, Halliburton's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, "from the introduction of Halliburton's HalLink(TM) high-speed satellite communications network into Africa to the continued advances being made to our existing infrastructure in Angola and Nigeria, Halliburton will continue to help operators leverage their resources in developing opportunities off the coast of West Africa."

Halliburton's business unit, Halliburton Energy Services, is scheduled to begin engineering related work within the next few weeks. Contract work is expected to continue for several years as Vanco works through its extensive deepwater portfolio, with exploration blocks in seven countries: Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, and Senegal.