Malaysia’s Petronas has pushed back the deadline for the submission of bids for a deal to construct a power plant at the Gharraf oil field in the south of Iraq.

Bidding firms have now been asked to submit their proposals on 15 July, instead of the original 2 July deadline, according to sources close to the project.

Petronas, which leads the development of the 1 billion-barrel oil field along with Japan’s Japex retendered the captive power plant deal in June, after originally tendering the project in December 2012.

The Malaysian firm has opted to tender the 120-160MW power plant on a design, build and operate basis, under which the winning firm will operate and maintain the plant for up to 10 years.

The plant will use a simple open-cycle gas turbine and electricity produced will be sent back to upstream oil production facilities. The project scope includes a 10-kilometre, 132kV transmission to take surplus electricity to the national grid at the Al-Rafaie substation, which will also require upgrades of its switchgears. Construction and commissioning is expected to take 22 months.