The commercial court in Rouen, northern France on Wednesday called on the five bidders interested in the troubled Petit-Couronne refinery formerly owned by insolvent Swiss firm Petroplus to complete their offers by April 16.

"The bids that were presented yesterday needed to be finalized. The commercial court of Rouen decided to delay the hearing to allow bidders to finalize their offers," Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said.

The previous deadline was Tuesday for offers for the refinery which has been in compulsory liquidation since mid-October 2012, putting about 470 jobs and 161,000 barrels-per-day at stake.

On Tuesday, Montebourg described two bids as "serious," namely offers from Switzerland's investor group Terrae and Egypt's energy company Arabiyya Lel Istithmaraat.

Earlier on Wednesday, a representative of the Egyptian bidder pledged to invest more than 100 million euros (135.34 million U.S. dollars) in the refinery and to keep all its staff except 60 employees who are retiring next month. Endi

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