Prequalified companies are due to submit bids on 6 March for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a $750 million oil refinery being built by the local Pak-Arab Refinery (Parco). Six companies have been invited to bid for the work. They are: JGC Corporation and Chiyoda Corporation, both of Japan; Germany's Kloeckner & Company; the UK's Foster Wheeler; Italy's Snamprogetti; and France's Technip.

The refinery will have a capacity of 100,000 barrels a day and is to be built at Mahmood Kot, near Multan. UOP of the US carried out the engineering design specification package and the UK's Babcock-King Wilkinson is project management consultant.

ANZ Grindlays is the financial adviser and is to arrange about $600 million debt finance, with an emphasis on export credits. Parco says that financial details and the award of the EPC contract are expected to be finalised in mid-1997. Under its petroleum policy, the government has guaranteed a 25 per cent return on equity over eight years for the project. In order to qualify, the refinery must be completed in 2000. Parco is 40 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company and 60 per cent by the government (MEED 23:8:96).