Indonesia's Pertamina issued a formal invitation to tender to provide an LNG-FSRU for its east-central Java project. The tender was sent out early this week.
Around eight players officially declared their interest when the project was first floated this summer.
South Korea's Samsung C&T is believed to be among those invited to bid.
Other bidders thought to be invited are likely to include the three most committed regasification players — Golar LNG, Excelerate Energy and Hoegh LNG.
Pertamina previously said it will issue a letter of intent to the preferred bidder by the end of November.
The Indonesian company is pursuing an ambitious timetable on the project. It wants the FSRU, which is to be sited off the northern coast of Java near Semarang, to be in operation by the first quarter of 2013.
The unit, which will have a peak send-out capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day (cbf/d), will be located around 18 kilometres (11.18 miles) offshore in 20 to 25 metres of water.
The East-Central Java FSRU will be the company’s second LNG-import facility and the third for Indonesia. Pertamina is due to see its West Java FSRU put into operation early next year, while gas-supply company Perusahaan Gas Negara has selected Hoegh LNG to provide an FSRU for its Medan LNG terminal. This unit is due to be in operation by 2012.