Luanda - The Angolan government has sent a document to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with the aim of making official its voluntary withdrawal from this economic bloc as of January 1, 2024.
According to the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, the communication was sent to the OPEC secretary general, Haitham al-Ghais, with a view to formalising Angola's decision to stop being a member of the intergovernmental organisation.
"The Government of Angola announces its decision to withdraw from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, with effect from 1 January 2024, under the terms of Presidential Decree 233/23, of 21 December," MIREMPT said in a statement.
Although the country's withdrawal from OPEC is official, the Angolan government thanks the Organisation for the support it has given to its member countries and wishes it well in carrying out its work for the stability of the oil market.
This communication to the Organisation comes a few hours after the minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, made a public announcement.
According to the government, the Republic of Angola has been a member of the Organisation of Crude Oil Exporting Countries for more than 16 years and during this time has fully complied with all the obligations owed to the organisation, as well as sharing in the efforts that the signatory countries of the OPEC and Non-OPEC Declaration of Cooperation (OPEC+) have made to stabilise the international oil market.
Despite this, it says, Angola currently needs to concentrate its efforts on implementing the strategies defined in the National Development Plan for the national oil sector.
Meanwhile, the country's decision to leave OPEC, which it joined voluntarily in 2006, follows the 36th Ministerial Meeting of this Organisation and its allies, held on 30 November this year through video conference, which decided to allocate Angola a production quota of 1.110 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Minister Diamantino Azevedo explained that the decision "was not taken unanimously and went against Angola's position, so the Angolan government reiterated and maintained its proposal to produce 1.180 million barrels of crude oil per day by 2024”.
In reaction to the decision by the participants at the Ministerial Meeting, which would force Angola to cut its production by 70,000 barrels of oil a day, the Angolan government sent a note of protest to the Organisation's General Secretariat, which culminated in its withdrawal from the organisation.
With Angola's withdrawal, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) now has 12 member nations.
Founded on 15 September 1960 in Baghdad by the five founding members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela), the Intergovernmental Organisation represented 44% of global crude oil production and 81.5% of the world's 'proven oil' reserves in 2018, when the Organisation had 14 member countries.
On the other hand, OPEC does not have the participation of other major producing countries such as the United States of America, Canada, Brazil, China and Qatar.
Furthermore, with the acronym 'OPEC+', this Organisation also includes the 'allied countries', which are not actually part of this bloc, but act jointly in some international policies linked to the oil trade and in mediation between members and non-members.
The allies that make up OPEC+ currently include countries such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Mexico and Russia.
QCB/MRA/jmc
