Sources: Murphy Oil's Malaysia Assets Draw Interest From Mitsubishi, ONGC

Murphy's net oil and gas production from Malaysia was about 86,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2013, with total proved reserves of 125 million barrels of oil and 406 billion cubic feet (11 billion cubic metres) of gas, according to its website.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp and Japan's Mitsui & Co were among the other suitors considering a bid.

Thailand's PTT did not take part in the bidding, a senior company official told Reuters. Kuwait Petroleum did not reply to an email seeking response, while a Mitsui spokesman declined comment.

Murphy's planned sale follows similar exits by other independent U.S. energy producers such as Hess Corp and Newfield Exploration Co, both of which have offloaded their Southeast Asian operations.

The move is also prompted in part by the strong demand generated for the Newfield and Hess auctions last year, the sources added.

A Mitsubishi spokeswoman, Oil India Chairman Sunil Kumar Srivastava and ONGC Videsh, the overseas business arm of ONGC, all declined to comment. Murphy did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

(Reporting by Denny Thomas, Nidhi Verma and James Topham; Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee, Aman Shah, David French, Rania El Gamal and Khettitya Jittapong; editing by Tom Hogue and Jason Neely)