Financial close on the $3.7bn Mostorod refinery in Egypt is set to reach financial close by early June, according to sources close to the deal.

Bankers involved in the project say that the financing should be signed in either late May or early June, once the last few conditions precedent are fulfilled.

“There are only a few things left to be done now before the deal can close,” says a source in Egypt involved in the project. “Financial close should happen in May, but it could slip a little bit.”

The deal to fund the project was due to close in early 2011, but talks with banks halted after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February that year. In the subsequent political upheaval in Egypt some of the government-owned investors who were due to take an equity stake in the project pulled out. As a result, Qatar Petroleum has stepped in with a $300m investment to rescue the scheme.

The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has also led to some changes in the banking group, according to one international banker on the project. Banks funding a $450m loan insured by the European Investment Bank must have an investment grade rating, but downgrades of European banks has forced some new lenders to join that tranche of the financing.