An international consortium developing two oilfields off Russia's Sakhalin island invited three international groups to bid for a tender to build the world's largest liquefied natural gas plant. The Sakhalin energy consortium said in a statement the three were French Bouygues Offshore, French Technic with U.S. Foster Wheeler, and Japan's Chiyoda Corp. with Toyo Corp. The Sakhalin energy consortium is led by Royal Dutch Shell. The $1 billion-plus contract involves construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant -- Russia's first -- with annual capacity of 9.6 million tons by 2006, the statement said. In addition to the LNG plant the contractor will design and build a crude oil export terminal and related facilities on the Sakhalin's southern coast.