Japanese plant engineering firm JGC Corp. and other companies that have been awarded a contract to build a petroleum refinery facility in Kuwait are left in limbo due to a parliamentary deadlock in that nation.

JGC, South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction Corp., and U.S. firm Fluor Corp. were among those selected in May by Kuwait National Petroleum Co. to build the plant in Al-Zour.

The contract, which is estimated at roughly 1.5 trillion yen (US$14.355 billion), has not been officially signed because the Kuwaiti opposition camp is seeking details on the bidding process.

The opposition camp is accusing the government of insufficient transparency, saying that Fluor won its portion of the deal without a proper bidding process and that a government-affiliated oversight organization was bypassed.

(C) 2008 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.