The fuel arm of the military, the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), confirmed that 22 companies had bid for the seven contracts to bring in fuel via Turkey but only seven - six of them Turkish - won the contracts.
According to the DESC, the biggest contract was awarded to Refinery Associates of Texas, which won a US$108.5 million contract to import diesel fuel and gasoline. The other winners were Turcas Petrol A.S. (US$59 million to buy diesel and gasoline), Opet Petrolcul U.K. A.S. (US$55 million gas contract), Petrol Ofisi A.S. (US$35 million diesel deal), Delta Petrol Urunleri Ticaret A.S. (US$18 million for LPG), Iprgaz A.S. (US$17 million LPG contract) and Tefirom Construction & Energy Co. Ltd (US$15.8 million LPG contract)
These contracts had originally been held by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), which is now under investigation by the Pentagon's Inspector General's office over allegations of overcharging for fuel brought into Iraq under a no-bid deal KBR had with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Halliburton and KBR have denied that any wrongdoing had been done and that the fuel brought into Iraq was at "the best possible price under very dangerous circumstances". Halliburton is the previous employer of US Vice-President Dick Cheney.
