Malaysia has said it will pay US company Ocean Infinity up to US$70m if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 within three months.
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said there is an 85% chance of finding the debris in a new 9,653 square mile (25,000 sq km) area identified by experts.
Last Thursday, the government signed a "no cure, no fee" deal with the Houston, Texas-based company to resume the hunt for the plane which disappeared nearly four years ago.
The official search in the southern Indian Ocean was called off last year.
The plane vanished on March 8, 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.