Africa News

September 21, 2004 Tuesday

Halliburton Barred From Receiving Contracts

BYLINE: Nigeria First

LENGTH: 418 words



The Federal Government on 20 September placed an embargo on the award of contracts to Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria

Limited (HENSL), an oil service company linked to United States (US) Vice President Dick Cheney.



This is as a result of what Government has termed "negligent conduct, which led to the loss of two ionizing radioactive sources from

Nigeria in 2002." Thus far Halliburton has also failed to cooperate with government authorities in ensuring the return of the sources

to Nigeria.



The two radioactive materials, which contained caesium-137, were reported missing by Halliburton while in transit between the

southern Nigerian oil cities of Warri and Port Harcourt in December 2002. Efforts by the Federal Government to recover the lost

radioactive materials since 2002, which has taken government officials to Germany where the materials were transferred, have not

yielded results.



A committee headed by the Minister of Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi, which was set up to probe the theft, subsequently submitted

an interim report to the President. The report claimed that the hand-held materials were later intercepted by German authorities at a

steel recycling plant in Bavaria.



WALL STREET JOURNAL ABSTRACTS

March 6, 2003, Thursday

RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL IS STOLEN FROM HALLIBURTON

BYLINE: BY RUSSELL GOLD

SECTION: Section B; Page 3, Column 2

LENGTH: 53 words



Halliburton Co says an oil-field device that contains radioactive americium 241 was stolen from its Nigeria operations in early

December; atomic-watchdog officials are concerned that the material could be used to make a so-called dirty bomb, although there

is no evidence that the theft is connected to terrorism



Africa News

June 21, 2004 Monday

Nigeria;

American Firm, Haliburton to Know Fate Soon

BYLINE: P.M. News

LENGTH: 216 words



Nigeria will next month release the report of a high-powered committee it constituted to investigate the activities of a U.S. petroleum

service company, Halliburton.



The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the company, Halliburton Energy Services, was last year indicted by the federal

government over the disappearance of two radioactive materials in the Niger Delta in 2002.



Halliburton had in December 2002, declared the radioactive materials missing while in transit between Warri, Delta State, and Port

Harcourt, Rivers State.



The hand-held materials contained Caesium-137, which can be used in a radioactive "dirty bomb", but are primarily used to x-ray

oil wells and pipelines to check cracks, as well as for radiography, nuclear well-logging and nuclear gauging.



Xinhua

September 20, 2004 Monday

Nigeria imposes indefinite ban on awarding contracts to Halliburton,XINHUA

LENGTH: 360 words



ABUJA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria on Monday imposed a indefinite ban on the award of contracts to US oil service giant

Halliburton's local subsidiary HENSL for its negligence that led to the loss of two ionizing radioactive sources.



"The federal government has decided to place an embargo on the patronage of Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Ltd. (HENSL)

arising from its negligent conduct, which led to the loss of two ionizing radioactive sources from Nigeria in 2002," a statement from

the State House said.



German authorities later intercepted them at a steel recycling plant in Bavaria, but refused Nigeria's request to return the materials

and instead returned them to Halliburton. The company moved them to the United States in January this year.



The Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA) had in March suspended Halliburton from carrying out any activity involving the

use, importation, transport and transfer of a radioactive source in Nigeria until the missing materials are recovered.



Africa News

December 6, 2004 Monday

Nigeria;

NNRA Confirms Return of Stolen Radioactive Materials

BYLINE: Daily Champion

LENGTH: 463 words



NIGERIAN Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) has confirmed the return by Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Ltd of two

stolen radioactive materials.



Speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) weekend in Abuja, the NNRA Director-General, Mr. Shamsudeen Elegba, said the

American oil service company had recently brought back the controversial materials from Houston, Texas.



"The items are now legally under our control, while the company is physically having them, but we have sealed the items with special

packs that cannot be broken without our consent," Elegba stated.



He said the agency had conducted various tests to ascertain integrity of the materials and confirm that they were the "real ones taken

away."



BBC Sumary of World Broadcasts

June 16, 2004, Wednesday

Nigeria: Row seen brewing with Germany over missing radioactive material

SOURCE: The Guardian web site, Lagos, in English 16 Jun 04

LENGTH: 887 words



The justice minister and attorney-general of the federation, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi, yesterday expressed dismay at Germany's

seeming disregard for Nigeria in ensuring justice over the matter. He disclosed that the Nigerian government had already lodged its

protest on the matter to its German and US counterparts as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).



Olujinmi said in the statement that the committee set up by the federal government visited Germany between 18 and 23 January this

year with a view to retrieving the radioactive materials and to monitor the trial of all the suspects.



"To their dismay, however, the members of the committee were told that Halliburton had taken possession of the radioactive devices

and had exported same to the US on 16 January 2004, two days before the committee was billed to arrive in Germany," Olujinmi

disclosed.



The attorney-general said: "The federal government has protested to the German government against the abrupt, unilateral

discontinuation of the criminal investigation, improper lifting of the seizure on the radioactive sources and release of sources to

Halliburton USA despite the manifest registration of Nigeria's interest in the matter.



The Washington Post

November 30, 2003 Sunday

Final Edition

Smugglers Enticed by Dirty Bomb Components;

Radioactive Materials Are Sought Worldwide

BYLINE: Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: A Section; A01

LENGTH: 2896 words

DATELINE: TBILISI, Georgia



Dozens of smuggling routes for nuclear and radiological materials have been charted over the past decade, but since 1999 a clear

favorite has emerged. Judging from cases reported to police, nuclear traffickers have discovered abundant opportunity in Europe's

southeastern flank: the Black Sea and Caucasus states that have long served as a crossroads linking Europe, the Middle East and Asia.



Topping the list is Georgia, the former Soviet republic where huge crowds of demonstrators recently forced President Eduard

Shevardnadze to resign. The small nation of 5 million suffers from porous borders, official corruption and rampant smuggling,

problems exacerbated by three ethnic rebellions -- in the provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the north, and Adzharia in the

south -- and regular incursions by guerrillas in the eastern region bordering Chechnya. In the conflict zones, trafficking in contraband

has gone from a sideline trade to a thriving industry that supports tens of thousands of people, including, by some accounts, leaders of

the rebel movements.



At least three times since 1999, officials have discovered kilogram-quantity caches of uranium in vehicles leaving or entering

Georgia. In the most recent case, on June 26, just over a pound of uranium was seized at the Georgia-Armenia border by guards

armed with U.S.-supplied radiation detectors, according to Georgian security officials. Tests to determine the origin and enrichment

level of the uranium were carried out with the help of U.S. Energy Department officials. The agency has declined to release the

results. Georgian officials say they believe the material originated in Russia and was being transported through Georgia for resale in Iran.



Another recent theft, viewed by U.S. and U.N. officials as especially grave, occurred in December when a large well-logger was

stolen from a truck in Nigeria. The owner of the device was Halliburton Co., based in Houston, which conducted its own search for

several weeks before notifying the U.N. nuclear watchdog of the loss.