Angola will withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) because membership of the group does not serve its interests, Diamantino Azevedo, the African country’s oil minister, said on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.
Angola, which joined OPEC in 2007, produces about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, while OPEC’s total daily output currently stands at 28 million barrels.
Azevedo confirmed on Thursday that the government in Luanda had taken the decision to withdraw from OPEC after the information first appeared in the local press. The minister said on state television that the decision was taken because OPEC membership was not in Angola’s interests, without giving further details.
Markets reacted immediately after the announcement, with Brent crude down more than a dollar to $78.50 on Thursday afternoon.
Angola’s decision is another blow to OPEC and its allies, with the organization deeply divided over further output cuts to support prices, which have fallen again since late September.
OPEC is trying to artificially maintain oil prices at a high level
By early September 2022, oil prices had reached their lowest level since the start of the war in Ukraine, but just a month later, the OPEC+ group, which includes Russia, decided to cut production to a record to support prices, despite pressure from the US on its allies in the Persian Gulf area.
The Democratic administration of President Joe Biden wanted oil prices to fall as much as possible to help reduce inflation in the United States, with high fuel prices immediately taxing Americans at the polls.
The decision by OPEC+ at the time was a personal defeat for President Biden, who just two months earlier had visited Saudi Arabia, one of the most powerful countries in the oil-exporting group, to even campaign for increased oil production. .
Angola’s decision to leave OPEC was made public by Bloomberg because the African country was dissatisfied with the production target for 2024, which the organization set for it. Estevao Pedro, OPEC Angola’s governor, previously said the government in Luanda was unhappy with the quota and had no intention of enforcing it.
Recently, disagreements over production quotas for African countries led to the postponement of the next meeting of OPEC+.
Source: Hot News
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