* Tripoli says has no stakes in BP, ENI, or other companies
* Statement may be a rebuff to Libya's top energy official
* Energy chief Shokri Ghanem in turf war with govt rivals
TRIPOLI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Libya's government on Tuesday denied it had any investments in foreign oil companies, in an apparent rebuff to the country's top energy official who had said buying shares in BP <BP.L> would be a good deal.
The government statement appeared to be directed at Shokri Ghanem, the head of Libya's NOC state oil company and part of a reformist camp that is competing for influence with conservatives inside the country's ruling elite.
The government said its communique was issued to counter previous statements by unnamed Libyan officials about the country's investments abroad.
"We deny emphatically statements leaked through news outlets abroad about Libyan investment in BP or other foreign oil firms via the purchase of stakes in their share capital, including Italian ENI," said the statement posted on the government's website.
"We warn that the Libyan Investment Authority is the only body tasked to take decisions on investment," it said. The authority is Libya's main sovereign wealth fund and the vehicle for most foreign equity investments.
Ghanem, who is also Libya's representative to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), told Reuters in July he believed BP shares represented "good value for bargain hunters." [ID:nWLA7706].
The government statement comes at a time when Libyan investments in foreign firms are becoming increasingly sensitive.
Some members of Italy's ruling coalition have expressed concern about Tripoli's holding in Unicredit <CRDI.MI>, Italy's biggest bank, after the combined Libyan stake increased to 7 percent. [ID:nLDE6851UI]
Libya's relationship with BP has also been the subject of heightened scrutiny.
A U.S. Senate committee is investigating whether there is any link between the award of contracts in Libya to BP and the release from a Scottish jail last year of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the man convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. (Writing by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by David Cowell)
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