Angola quits Opec, says no point in membership: Update

Market: Crude oil
21/12/23

Updates with oil minister statement, details throughout

Angola has decided to leave Opec because continued membership has no benefits, the country's oil minister Diamantino Azevedo said today.

The decision to end the west African country's 16-year membership of the producer organisation comes after it publicly disputed the outcome of the most recent Opec+ crude production allocation.

In comments reported by state-run news agency Angop, Azevedo said: "We feel that at this moment Angola gains nothing by remaining in the organisation and, in defence of its interests, it decided to leave."

"When we are in organisations and our contributions, our ideas, do not produce any effect, the best thing is to withdraw," he said.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting and signed into law by Angola's president Joao Lourenco, Angop reported.

Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa behind Nigeria, but has endured years of output decline since a peak of nearly 2mn b/d in 2008 — just a year after it joined Opec. Argus estimated the country's crude output at 1.16mn b/d in November.

The west African country has been trying to reverse the downward output trend since creating a regulator, ANPG, in 2019, and it has had some success in attracting overseas investment into its offshore from firms including TotalEnergies, BP and Italy's Eni. But the outcome of the recent Opec+ negotiations left Angola with a production ceiling of 1.11mn b/d in 2024, after Luanda had appealed for 1.18mn b/d, providing no scope for output gains and prompting the government to formally and publicly object to the secretariat.

Opec's own data show Angola's oil and gas reserves at 2.5bn bl and 301bn m³, respectively.

There has been no reaction from Opec at time of publication.

By Ben Winkley

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