Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation announced plans on Thursday to buy up the assets of Canadian oil company Verenex in Libya, a bid that would block similar moves by China.
"We are going to exercise our pre-emptive right to buy Verenex" assets in the north African state, NOC chairman Shukri Ghanem told AFP by telephone from Vienna where he was attending an international energy conference.
Ghanem said however that Libya had not decided yet on the price for the assets, which include interests in fields in the Ghadamese basin southwest of Tripoli.
Verenex Energy Inc said it was "unable to confirm or deny" Ghanem's remarks.
"As previously announced, the proposed sale of Verenex is subject to certain consents from the Libyan National Oil Corporation," it said in a statement on its website.
"Verenex has requested such consents from the NOC but no formal decision has yet been communicated to the company," it added.
The Calgary-based company announced last month that China National Petroleum Corp had agreed to buy Verenex, including its Libyan oil assets, in a deal worth 400 million dollars.
But the Chinese offer still had to be approved by the Libyan National Oil Corp and Verenex shareholders owning at least two thirds of the outstanding shares, Verenex said at the time.
Verenex has made 10 oil and gas discoveries in Libya since drilling began in in September 2006 in the Ghadames basin.
OPEC member Libya is the third oil producer in Africa after Nigeria and Angola, pumping nearly two million barrels of crude oil per day and hopes to increase production to three million bpd by 2013.
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