* North Sea producer Chrysaor also preparing bid - sources
* Conoco relaunched sale after Ineos abandoned talks
* Assets could fetch up to $2 billion
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Italy's Eni has teamedup with private equity firm HitecVision to bid against Chrysaorfor ConocoPhillip's North Sea oil and gas assets,sources close to the process said.
Conoco relaunched the sale process in recent weeks afterenergy and chemicals firm Ineos, privately owned by Britishbillionaire Jim Ratcliffe, abandoned exclusive talks with theU.S. company, the sources said.
The sale, which would mark Conoco's exit from the ageingbasin after more than 50 years, was expected to raise up to $2billion.
Eni is partnering with Norway's HitecVision to bid for theassets, sources close to the process said.
The two firms are looking to tighten cooperation in theNorth Sea after merging their Norwegian assets to createindependent producer Var Energi in December, the sources said.
Chrysaor, backed by private equity firm EIG Global Partners,became one of the largest North Sea producers after acquiringassets from Royal Dutch Shell for $3.8 billion in 2017.
Its Chief Executive Officer Phil Kirk has stated he wants togrow Chrysaor's operations in the basin.
Chrysaor was looking at Conoco's assets before Ineos enteredexclusive talks and was now preparing a formal bid, the sourcessaid.
Chrysaor was expected to carry on with its bid for Chevron'sNorth Sea assets, the sources said.
HitecVision was not immediately available to comment. Eni,Chrysaor, Ineos and Conoco declined to comment.
(Additional reporting by Clara Denina, Nerijus Adomaitis inOslo, Stephen Jewkes in MilanEditing by Edmund Blair)
