A quartet of contractors are set to submit commercial bids to US independent Hess early in the new year as they battle to supply a major floating production, storage and offloading vessel for the challenging $4 billion Greater Pecan project off Ghana.

Industry sources said Hess informed Malaysia's Bumi Armada, Tokyo-headquartered Modec, SBM Offshore in the Netherlands and Kuala Lumpur-based Yinson that commercial offers are required in January.