IRAQ - Oct. 21 - Halliburton Questioned On Iraqi Oil Cost.

The head of the Iraqi oil agency responsible for importing and exporting petroleum products says that his organization had been trucking in gasoline and other badly needed fuels to Iraq for considerably less money than Halliburton, which has so far received more than $700 million from the US Army Corps of Engineers to stave off shortages in Iraq. Separately, a report by the independent Congressional Research Service this month noted that the Corps of Engineers may be paying too much to import fuel. The revelations add to charges by two Democratic representatives, Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan, that Halliburton is overcharging US taxpayers and Iraqis. The lawmakers sent a letter Tuesday to the Corps of Engineers asking it to look into the price disparity between the Iraqi agency's imports and Halliburton's. The letter also noted information released by the Army Corps of Engineers - that most of the money to buy the fuel is from a fund established by the UN, but put under US control, to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq "in a transparent manner," according to the resolution that set up the fund. "Although it initially appeared that Halliburton was gouging only American taxpayers, it now appears that the company is overcharging the humanitarian Oil for Food program and the Iraqi people as well," the lawmakers wrote to the head of the Corps of Engineers, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers. Halliburton, which is based in Houston, has strongly denied the allegations, if not the pricing cited by the lawmakers, contending that it buys fuel by soliciting competitive bids and that the high cost stems from the price of transporting and distributing fuel in a volatile country. The Army Corps of Engineers and the CPA, the US-led civil administration in Iraq, have so far stood by Halliburton. But Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, is now importing fuel to Iraq, too, from the same countries as Halliburton. An Oct. 16 fax from SOMO to the House Committee on Government Reform, where Waxman is the ranking Democrat, indicates that the Iraqis are bringing in gasoline at a much lower price than Halliburton is. In the fax, SOMO's general manager, Mohammed al-Jibouri, said that gasoline from Turkey costs $347 per metric ton delivered to Baghdad, which he said is about 98 cents a gallon. Responding to allegations by the lawmakers, Halliburton said last week that it charges $1. 59 per gallon, or 42 cents per liter, for its gasoline imports, which includes a 2 percent profit margin. "I am not aware of the SOMO mission," a spokeswoman for Halliburton,Wendy Hall, said by e-mail, and would not comment further on the issue. Jibouri said in telephone interviews from Baghdad over the last two days that the 98 cents per gallon for the priciest gas it imports "includes everything. "What explains the price gap?"They probably don't know the region that well," al-Jibouri says. "We used to sell petroleum products to the people we now buy from. So we know the prices very well".