Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has appointed the UK’s HSBC and France’s BNP Paribas as joint financial advisers on its planned $6bn refinery expansion.

The award has come as a surprise, as the four banks that had pitched for the mandate did so individually, but it appears that Bapco took to the unusual decision to give the work to two of them.

BNP Paribas and the US’ JPMorgan were joint low bidders for the mandate, followed by HSBC and then Germany’s Deutsche Bank.

The two advisers will now start work on the financing options for the planned expansion of Bapco’s Sitra refinery. They are expected to also look at what options Bapco has for refinancing existing debt, bringing the total potential capital raising to around $6bn.