Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec) is interested in buying BP's stake in the Nam Con Son gas project off the coast of Vietnam, a newspaper reported.

State oil group Petrovietnam and Kufpec, a unit of Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), were ready to discuss buying the stake with BP and other partners in the project, Petrovietnam Chairman Dinh La Thang was quoted by the state-run Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper as saying.

BP plans to sell its 35 percent stake in the Nam Con Son gas project as part of its goal of selling $30 billion in assets to cover costs for containing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Apart from Kufpec, several firms have also expressed interested in buying BP's assets, such as Russia's No. 3 oil company TNK-BP and India's state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).   

ONGC already holds a 45 percent stake in the project and Petrovietnam owns 20 percent. Kufpec currently has production sharing contracts in three blocks off Vietnam's coast. - Reuters