Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has received four bids for a contract to advise the company on the financing of its $6bn refinery expansion project.

The joint lowest bidders were France’s BNP Paribas and the US’ JP Morgan, who both bid $2.4m for the work. The UK’s HSBC bid $3m and Germany’s Deutsche Bank bid $3.6m. Bids were opened on 11 October.

The mandate is understood to include working on the refinancing of Bapco’s existing debt and options for financing the refinery expansion plans.