New York, Aug 09: HE Bechtel Group, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies, has dropped out of the running for a contract to rebuild Iraq's oil industry, as other competitors have begun to conclude that the bidding process "favours" the one company already working in Iraq, Halliburton. After the US Army Corps of Engineers quietly selected Halliburton in the spring to perform early repairs of the Iraqi oil business in the aftermath of the war, other companies and members of Congress protested that the work should have been awarded through competitive bidding.

Halliburton's role in the rebuilding has been under political scrutiny because the company was formerly headed by vice president Dick Cheney, The New York Times reported.
But the Bush administration and the Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the Iraqi oil reconstruction effort, have repeatedly said that Halliburton has no inside track.

Preliminary plans for a new contract, which industry executives had thought might total USD 1 billion, were announced late in June by the Corps of Engineers. Bureau Report