The U.K. government told BP Plc it would oppose the acquisition of the oil producer by a foreign company, the Financial Times reported.

“The government talks to a wide range of U.K. business, as you would expect,” the prime minister’s office said in an e-mailed statement. “It is in the U.K.’s interest to have British companies competing and succeeding at home and abroad.”

While the government has no formal powers to block BP’s acquisition, it would make its opposition clear, the FT said, citing people in the prime minister’s office it didn’t identify.

Speculation about consolidation in the oil and gas industry has grown since Royal Dutch Shell Plc agreed to a $70 billion deal to buy Britain’s BG Group Plc this month. After Shell’s BG move, BP’s management feels vulnerable to a possible bid from U.S. competitor Exxon Mobil Corp., people familiar with company’s thinking said this month.

BP, damaged by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill five years ago, has a market value that’s less than half of Exxon’s.

BP declined to comment.

While Britain has traditionally been among the most open of the world’s largest economies to overseas investors buying companies, the government’s opposition to last year’s offer for drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc by Pfizer Inc. showed there were exceptions.