* North Sea producer Chrysaor also preparing bid - sources
* Conoco relaunched sale after Ineos abandoned talks
* Assets could fetch up to $2 billion(Adds comment from ConocoPhillips in paragraph 10)
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.
Chrysaor Chief Executive Officer Phil Kirk has stated hewants to grow Chrysaor's operations in the basin.
The sources said Chrysaor was looking at Conoco's assetsbefore Ineos entered exclusive talks and was now preparing aformal bid.
Chrysaor was expected to carry on with its bid for Chevron'sNorth Sea assets, the sources said.
ConocoPhillips, whose production in Britain's North Seareached 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2017, saidit was continuing the sale process for its British North Seaassets with a number of parties, without naming them.
The assets include a 7.5 percent stake in the west Shetlandsregion's Clair field, which is operated by BP, as well asholdings in the Britannia and J-Block hubs.
Eni, Chrysaor and Ineos declined to comment.
HitecVision was not immediately available to comment.
(Additional reporting by Clara Denina, Nerijus Adomaitis inOslo, Stephen Jewkes in MilanEditing by Edmund Blair)
BP (BP.)
