National oil corporation Petronas announced Tuesday it has awarded a contract to a consortium including German and Indian companies to build an oil plant in Malaysia.

Petronas said it has granted an engineering, procurement and construction and commissioning contract to build a base oil plant to a consortium of Lurgi AG of Germany and Larsen and Toubro Ltd of India and three other companies.

"It will produce 6,500 barrels per day of mostly Group 111 base oil, a major component for the manufacture of top-tier automotive and industrial lubricants," Petronas said in a statement.

The plant would be the first of its kind in Malaysia and is to be built in the southern state of Malacca. It is due for completion in 2008.