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British oil services group Petrofac is not interested in acquiring Swiss-based engineering company Foster Wheeler, a source familiar with the UK company said on Sunday.

Britain's Sunday Times reported that FTSE 100 company Petrofac had entered the race to buy Foster Wheeler, setting up a possible bid battle against Britain's Amec for the $3 billion Nasdaq-listed company.Both Foster Wheeler and Petrofac declined to comment on the Sunday Times story.

The Sunday Times also said in its story that Petrofac had in the past made a bid to buy Foster Wheeler's engineering arm for about $2 billion, an approach which was rejected.

The source declined to comment on Petrofac's reported previous interest in Foster Wheeler's engineering business.

Amec is looking at Foster Wheeler as one of a number of potential acquisition targets, but is not currently in talks with the company, a source told Reuters in November.