Kenya to buy 500,000 barrels of Sudan oil monthly

August 25, 2008 (NAIROBI) — Kenya will start importing 500,000 barrels of crude oil from Sudan each month after the two countries signed an agreement, the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi said.

East Africa’s largest economy sources most of its crude requirements from the Middle East under open tendering.

“The two parties to the memorandum of understanding agreed that Sudan will supply Kenya with at least 500,000 barrels of crude oil monthly,” a statement by the embassy said.

Badralgin Abdalla, a deputy envoy, told Reuters that a Kenyan team was in Khartoum to discuss technical details of the agreement, adding the deal is “preferential.”

Neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea are the two other countries enjoying a similar arrangement, he said.

Sudan’s oil operations are repeatedly interrupted by war with southerners laying claim to oilfields.

In the latest flare-up, the country’s former north-south foes earlier in August agreed on an administration for the disputed oil-producing Abyei region, where clashes this year threatened to derail a 2005 peace deal.

The clashes in May burnt most of Abyei town, killed scores and displaced 50,000 from their homes.

(Reuters)