Nasiriya has so far drawn scant interest from the big hitters. However the highly ambitious Jordan pipeline is on track and its scope may even be extended.

So far, only one of the 13 companies that qualified to bid for the 300,000 b/d Nasiriya oil field and refinery project submitted a bid bond of $10mn ahead of a 23 January deadline. The Iraqi Oil Ministry has postponed the deadline for submissions twice. It had originally set a 19 December cut-off date but has now pushed it back to 19 June and there is a chance of a further delay, while it discusses further amendments to the profit-sharing contracts. (CONTINUED - 1682 WORDS)