President William Ruto has said that Kenya is open to the possibility of buying Russian oil.
Speaking to the BBC, President Ruto said that his government will be willing to engage other governments that sell oil if there is a possibility of getting Kenya cheaper prices. These include Russia.
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“I am now going to move on to the agenda of making sure that we have government-to-government relationships that will progressively now begin the journey to bring the prices of fuel down,” President Ruto said. “All options are available to us as a country.”
According to Reuters, Russia has ramped up oil shipments to Asia since Europe imposed sweeping sanctions, but still needs to re-route over a quarter of its crude exports away from Europe – or about 1.3 million barrels per day – when a full oil embargo hits in December.
Russia currently exports around 20 million tonnes of crude per month – roughly five million barrels per day (bpd) – via several routes, including the Druzhba pipeline to Europe and others to Asia.
Reuters reported that in August, Russia’s total exports via European ports and the Druzhba pipeline amounted to 12.05 million tonnes, of which around 5.5 million tonnes (1.3 million bpd) were shipped to countries that will stop importing Russian oil from Dec. 5.
Russia has to find new buyers for that crude, which could require cheap prices and special terms, while also facing costlier logistics to deliver to more remote destinations, traders told Reuters.