Kenya keen to buy Sudanese oil as peace hopes rise

NAIROBI, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Progress towards ending Sudan’s civil war has raised Kenya’s hopes of securing cheaper oil from its giant neighbour by dispelling activists’ concerns over human rights abuses, Kenya’s energy minister said on Monday.

Ochilo Ayacko said Kenya had faced objections in the past from pressure groups who called Sudan supplies “blood oil”, referring to allegations that a government scorched earth policy has forced thousands of villagers to flee production areas.

Recent breakthroughs towards ending the 20-year conflict between the government and southern rebels at peace talks in Kenya would remove such concerns, Ayacko said.

Ayacko said he had received invitations to visit Sudan to discuss possible deals when he had recently attended the talks.

“We have an invitation to go to Sudan next month, we also have another to go to south Sudan,” Ayacko told reporters at a review meeting of progress made in the past year in reforming Kenya’s state-owned energy firms.

“We are absolutely sure that there will be a peace deal, there’s nothing to wait for,” he said.

The Khartoum government and southern rebels signed a pact on how to share oil and other resources last week, clearing a major obstacle towards striking a final deal to end a civil war in which an estimated two million people have died.

Kenya currently imports no oil from Sudan, but has said in the past it hopes to secure cheaper supplies than those from Nigeria or Murban crude from the United Arab Emirates.

Ayacko declined to say how much oil Kenya planned to obtain from Sudan, which only began petroleum exports in the late 1990s but has a growing output of more than 250,000 barrels a day.

Sudan’s oil has raised the stakes in the civil war in recent years, further complicating a conflict between the government and southern rebels rooted in factors from ethnicity and religion to ideology and economic divides.