Iraqi oil sector consultants and former oil executives have called on the Oil Ministry to clarify its position on an agreement signed with a Swiss firm in October for the construction of a $6bn refinery.

A memorandum of understanding was signed with Switzlerland-based Satarem, a firm with no previous experience in refining or even engineering and construction in October, for the development of a 150,000 barrel a day (b/d) refinery at Missan in the southeast of Iraq.

Signed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Satarem chief executive Jerome Friler, the deal came after several years of failed attempts by the Oil Ministry to attract foreign investment into Iraq’s downstream sector.

An investigation by a Swiss-Iraqi engineer, Muthana Kubba, published by the Egyptian news agency Ahram Online, raised a number of questions about the deal. Kubba has written an open letter to the Oil Ministry outlining his findings and urging it to drop the deal. The letter has also been circulated among Iraqi consultants.

“The Oil Ministry has to come out with official statement on this matter and a decision on the fate of the signed memorandum of understanding. Offering such a modern refinery at such cost should be thought seriously, carefully and with credible due diligence,” says Ahmed Mousa Jiyad, a consultant based in Norway.

However, the deal follows a strangely familiar pattern in Iraq, says Jiyad with agreements announced, but shrouded in uncertainty.

He cites the example of a deal signed by the Oil Ministry for the development of another refinery, this time at Karbala by a UAE-Italian consortium, known as the Refinery of Karbala Corporation. The deal collapsed in early 2012, and the Oil Ministry is now pursuing the scheme as a government funded project.

There were also two contracts with the Electricity Ministry in 2011. The first was a $1.2bn deal with Vancouver-based Canadian Alliance for Power Generation Equipment and a $500m deal with Germany’s Maschinenbau Habentstads. Both were revoked, says Jiyad when the companies were shown to be unqualified.