Halliburton will be moving to a “comfort zone” when it relocates its headquarters to Dubai, a place where there are no taxes to pay and where corruption, while not a virtue, is not a vice.

The move, announced this week, makes sense for a company so steeped in the game of Middle East oil and power, so close to decisionmakers such as President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and so close to the rulers of the Persian Gulf region. Halliburton and Dubai qualify as the perfect marriage.

It puts the megacompany close to its favored clients. In the past few years, Halliburton’s business has shifted to places like Kuwait, Russia, Libya, Australia, Vietnam, and west and central Africa, places where business practices are more elastic than in America.

Halliburton and Schlumberger Limited rank as the world’s largest oil-field services corporations, operating in more than 70 countries each, with tens of thousands of employees from some 100 nationalities.

But what has bothered Halliburton in the past 10 years of growth is that Schlumberger has the advantage of an understanding host government, which is France. The French do not concern themselves about illegal practices abroad. Their policy is “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Halliburton, on the other hand, contends that America has conducted excessive scrutiny of its activities, limiting its business growth.

The choice of Dubai also makes a lot of sense. The emirate has been racing toward becoming the ultimate corporate haven for those who have come to feel increasingly scrutinized in former havens of free money such as Zurich, Singapore, and Hong Kong, which have entered a more regulated European or Chinese influence zone.

Another attraction is that Dubai has remained loyal to its origins. In the 1940s, it was conceived as a maverick free-trade outpost where sailors could smuggle gold to the subcontinent and return with spices, no questions asked and much money to be made.

It has become a major financial and trading center, with one of the world’s largest re-export businesses, tax-free ports, and possibly the world’s most sophisticated money-recycling banking facilities. Some call it laundering.

The Halliburton move comes at a time when American big businesses have been complaining about too much regulation by federal authorities. Earlier this year, these concerns were marshaled in a campaign that began at a Davos International meeting, where several spokesmen said New York is losing its edge as a business center to London.

Things were getting a bit dicey for Halliburton at home. Its KBR military-contracting subsidiary has gotten into trouble for mishandling billions of dollars of housing, food, and fuel contracts for American troops and government officials in Iraq. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating allegations of improper dealings in Iraq, Kuwait, and Nigeria. It is not certain if the move to Dubai will shield Halliburton from some of these pursuits. What is sure, however, is that Halliburton will not be short of political clout at home and can keep on moving forward and onward.

Mr. Cheney, while a top company official between 1995 and 2001, helped Halliburton establish its close ties to the oil-rich family governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and others. And, once Halliburton is no longer subject to American laws, there are many billions to be made in Iran, which needs American expertise to boost its oil production.

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