Cirque wasn't bidding alone in this... Cirque was teamed up with 3 other companies DeMaria/Cirque/SSOE/Veolia to combine for 1 bid.....
So it is not like Cirque was up there alone in the running against Cheveron so to say "at least they were mentioned" really holds no weight... I would say, without Veolia, Cirque didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell....