Oil Prices Decline Following the Exit of Angola as a Member of OPEC

In previous months, the Organization of Petroleum Countries has been having issues with a few of its members, leading to Angola leaving OPEC and a decline in global crude oil prices on Thursday.

Before now, Nigeria and Angola have been opposing a reduction in their crude oil production quotas by OPEC.

A report by Bloomberg said that OPEC was far from resolving the deadlock over oil production quotas for some African members that had forced the group to delay a critical meeting amid faltering prices, quoting delegates.

Angola Press Agency reported that the country’s Minister of Oil, Diamantino de Azevedo, said on Thursday that the government has decided to halt its membership in OPEC.

Azevedo informed the press that the decision was made during a council of ministers’ session, which Angolan President João Lourenço chaired.

“We feel that at the moment Angola does not gain anything by remaining in the organization and, in defense of its interests, it has decided to leave,” Azevedo reportedly stated.

The exit of Angola from OPEC on Thursday has negatively affected the price of crude oil, as Brent, the global benchmark for oil, declined by 1.49% to $78.49 a barrel. At the same time, US West Texas Intermediate dropped by 1.44% to $73.15 a barrel.

In November, OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, reduced Angola’s oil production target in 2024 to 1.11 million barrels per day. Before the reduction, OPEC said Angola could produce 1.28 million bpd following pending assessments by consultancies.

Earlier this month, Angola said it wasn't going to follow the decision of OPEC, as it said leaving the cartel wasn't sure except it saw a reason to. Bloomberg reported that delegates at the OPEC meeting blamed disagreements on Africa’s oil output for postponing the alliance’s last meeting on November 25-26.

The meeting was held on November 30, with OPEC saying Nigeria could achieve an oil production quota of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024 and Angola 1.11 million bpd.

The meeting also welcomed Alexandre Silveira de Oliveira, Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil, ahead of the country’s admittance to the OPEC+ cooperation charter in January 2024.

Although Nigeria’s oil output, excluding condensates, revolves below 1.3 million barrels per day, lower than the 1.5 mbpd production approved for the country by OPEC in 2024, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, recently said the country would meet and surpass its OPEC quota.

Oil prices reacted negatively following the exit of Angola from OPEC, as the price of the main international and United States crude dropped more than 1.5%.