LONDON (Reuters) - British oil services group Petrofac (>> Petrofac Limited) is not interested in acquiring Swiss-based engineering company Foster Wheeler (>> Foster Wheeler AG), 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 (>> AMEC plc) 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.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Mark Potter)

Stocks treated in this article : Foster Wheeler AG, Petrofac Limited, AMEC plc