@TehBlaster, upon re-reading the announcement, I get the feeling...

@TehBlaster, upon re-reading the announcement, I get the feeling perhaps the issue was on the KBR side of the study:

IMO this indicates it was KBR who cap in hand offered QPM the Performance Guarantee.
Pure speculation, but why would they do that if as you've shown they were already locked in as a sole-source vendor?
Yes they are a global level company with over $US 5B in revenue/year, but perhaps they underestimated this little ol' Aussie project and had not devoted sufficient resources to it, and were found out running behind spec/timelines/budget.

Now QPM have direct oversight, with their staff working alongside KBR in a project team.

KBR looking to save face with this gracious acknowledgement:

So while I've been pointing the finger, that of course won't bring the project to the go line any quicker. Just glad to see a key partner now fully committed and doing everything possible to keep on schedule and meet the performance standards that underpin the TECH's success.
Once the DFS is wrapped, anticipating a strong news flow as a result of the financing due diligence component being shortened due to the significant backwards-looking work already underway, such as Benz & Skepper's strategic review.