Halliburton Investors Head to Oklahoma

Halliburton earned a record $2.4 billion last year, but Houston executives will forgo Texas-sized luxury when they go this week to Duncan, Okla., a rural county seat.

Shareholders, who have gathered for the company’s annual meeting since 2003 at Houston’s lavish Four Seasons Hotel, will meet Wednesday in the modern but far humbler setting of Duncan’s convention center.

Halliburton Co. says it moved its meeting to this company town of 22,500 to honor its southern Oklahoma roots. The company’s critics accuse it of running to a prairie outpost to hide.

Halliburton’s annual meetings have drawn 200 to 500 protesters in recent years.

The company, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has drawn criticism for its big government contracts, some awarded without competitive bidding. Its KBR unit provides support services for troops stationed in the Middle East.