"Taqa is always interested in companies looking to dispose of North Sea assets, because we believe that the North Sea"s resources have not been fully exploited," Taqa Chief Executive Peter Barker-Homek said in an e-mail to Reuters.

"Petro-Canada (PCA.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, an existing Taqa partner, is active in the North Sea, and we talk with them regularly on a host of issues," he said in response to a question asking whether Taqa is in talks with Petro-Canada to buy its North Sea assets.

North Sea oil and gas output is waning. Output from the UK"s fields peaked in 1999 and has been falling at around 8-10 percent per year since.

High oil prices have encouraged smaller oil and gas companies to buy assets from majors and develop marginal fields that were previously deemed uneconomical.

Taqa, 75 percent owned by the Abu Dhabi government, would soon hold investments in nine countries, including the UK, Morocco, Ghana and India, Barker-Homek said.

Barker-Homek said earlier this year that Taqa would buy $6 billion of assets in 2007, taking its investments to $20 billion, as Abu Dhabi seeks to use record oil income last year to diversify its sources of revenue and cushion against any future decline in the price of crude.

Taqa bought $550 million of North Sea assets from Canada"s Talisman (TLM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research in January, adding to the $694 million in Dutch oil and gas assets that it bought from BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research in November.

PIN/REUTERS