Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the company will have to successfully identify the location of the wreckage or find both the flight recorders of the missing flight.
The recorders are the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR).
“It will work on a ‘no cure no fee’ basis.
“The evidence must be presented in a considerable and credible manner to confirm the exact location of the two main items,” he said at a press conference.
He said this after a signing ceremony between the Malaysian government and Ocean Infinity here in Putrajaya.
Ocean Infinity’s CEO Oliver Plunkett and Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman were present during the ceremony.
Liow said the search operation will be carried out in the southern Indian Ocean from Jan 17 and will end after 90 days.
He said the search area covers 25,000 square kilometres and the payment will depend on where the wreckage or the recorders are found.
Liow said the company will receive US$20 million (RM80 million) if the finding is made within 5,000 square kilometres in the primary search area.
US$30 million (RM120 million) will be paid for the subsequent 10,000 square kilometres.
The reward goes higher to US$50 million (RM200 million) in the next 10,000 square kilometres of the tertiary search area.
It ends at US$70 million (RM280 million) for the supplementary search area beyond 25,000 square kilometres.
Liow said the vessel, Seabed Constructor, was currently on her way to the search area, taking advantage of the favourable weather conditions in the southern lndian Ocean.
“We have on board a crew of 65, including two personnel from the Royal Malaysian Navy, as the Malaysian government representative.”
He added the MH370 response team is headed by the DCA director-general, along with officials from the transport, foreign affairs, and communications and multimedia ministries, and other agencies.
Police and the attorney-general‘s chambers will be monitoring the work done by Ocean Infinity via an operations room at the DCA premises.
Liow said the team will be updating the families of those on board MH370 via text messages and email.
It will also update the latest information on the MH370 official website.
“It is my hope that we will find the answers that we have been seeking for nearly four years and bring some closure to this unfortunate incident.”
Plunkett said they would use eight drones and other technologies to cover the search area daily.
He said they were confident of finding the wreckage.
The Norwegian research vessel named Seabed Constructor is carrying eight autonomous drones, equipped with sonars and cameras, that will scour the waters in the hunt for the wreckage and can operate at depths up to 6,000 metres.
Five days ago, Liow had told AFP that Malaysia had agreed to allow the US firm to resume the hunt for flight MH370.
This comes a year after the search was suspended.
The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people – mostly from China – on board. It was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
No sign of the main wreckage of the plane has been found in a 120,000 sq km search zone selected by satellite analysis of the jet’s likely trajectory.
Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.
Meanwhile, AFP reported relatives of MH370 passengers welcoming the decision.
“We are grateful the Malaysian government is resuming the search for MH370,” VPR Nathan, whose wife Anne Daisy was on the plane, told AFP.
“We do not know what happened. We need to know what happened before we can get closure.”
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