Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) is set to hold meetings with the four banks that have bid to advise on the financing for its $6bn refinery expansion in early November.

Financial bids have already been opened for the scheme, with the US’ JP Morgan and France’s BNP Paribas joint low bidders. The other two bidders are the UK’s HSBC and Germany’s Deutsche Bank. The meetings in November will cover the four bidders technical proposals for how they suggest funding the scheme.

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