Libya denies interest in acquiring BP stake

Libya has no stake in British energy giant BP or any other international oil firms, the government website said on Tuesday, countering speculation to the contrary.

"We deny emphatically statements carried by some news outlets abroad about investment in BP or other foreign oil firms via the purchase of stakes in their share capital, including Italian ENI," said a statement.

"We warn that the Libyan Investment Authority is the only body tasked to take decisions on investment," it added.

In July, Chokri Ghanem, chief of Libya's National Oil Co, had said "BP represents an opportunity for any investor."

However, he qualified that by saying that was just the "point of view of an economist" and that he was "only making a recommendation that could be useful to Libya or to any other country or investor."

BP shares plunged between April and July following the explosion of one of the company's oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that caused a massive oil spill.