Luanda - Angola exported, in the second quarter of 2024, about 96.84 million barrels of crude oil valued at approximately US$8.11 billion, which represents an increase of 0.56% compared to the previous quarter.
As for the same period of 2023, the increase is 1.89%, according to the Secretary of State for Oil and Gas, José Barroso, who was speaking this Wednesday at the ceremony to take stock of crude oil and natural gas exports, for the second quarter of this year.
Regarding the gross value, he informed that there was an increase of 2.38% compared to the first quarter of this year and 12.19% compared to the same period of 2023.
In the same period, he said, China was the main destination for exports with 54.83% of the total volume exported, followed by Spain with 8.01%, India with 7.84%, Canada and France with 4.11% and 3.71%, respectively.
With regard to natural gas, exports in the same period totaled just over one million metric tons, of which 82.45% represents Liquefied and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG).
According to the Secretary of State, the volume of natural gas exported corresponded to a gross value of approximately US$566.84 million.
He highlighted that gas exports represented an increase of almost 10% compared to the previous quarter.
Consequently, he said, the value resulting from the sale of this product was 33.73 percent higher, compared to the previous quarter.
According to José Barroso, the situation derived from the increase in gas prices on the international market.
'In the period in question, LNG was exported mainly to Asia,' he stressed.
Brent registered, in the quarter under review, the average price of USD 84,973 per barrel.
As for this product, the Secretary of State underlined that, during this period, the price of Brent on the international market had a volatile behaviour, with a downward trend, influenced by several factors.
He pointed out, as main factors, the increase in crude oil production in the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation, concerns about weak growth in global demand that raised fears of oversupply, reduced demand for gasoline in the US, as a result of the increase in stocks, as well as less optimistic expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
'Despite the impact of these factors, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as OPEC's decision to extend production cuts until the end of 2025, have contributed to prices remaining relatively stable on the international market,' he said.
Sonangol and ANPG
In turn, the chairman of the Executive Board of Sonangol's Business Unit, Luís Manuel, when presenting the summary of the results of this and the National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels, for the quarter under review, indicated that the price of crude oil reached, in April 2024, the maximum value of 93.35 USD per barrel and, in June, the minimum was 75.92 USD, with an average of 84.97 USD/barrel.
He said that there were many factors that influenced the variations, such as geopolitical conflicts, the expectation of reduction cuts, the sudden fall of the US dollar in the context of the expansion of the eurozone economy and the continuous armed conflicts in the Middle East.
According to Luís Manuel, in the same period, crude oil was destined, along with the countries already mentioned above, to the USA (2.53%), Italy (2.31%) and South Africa (2.42%), which also purchased the product in the first quarter.
To these are added Singapore and the United Kingdom with the same figure (2.53%), as well as Brazil (2.56%) and Indonesia (7.78%).
Also, with regard to crude oil sales, he said that these were positively influenced by the decrease in refining margins in Europe, due to the weak consumption of energy use by the industrial sector and the drop in processing.
Regarding the transactional volume, it reported that they registered about 39 million barrels, with a gross value of three billion 280 million 350 thousand dollars.
Of these figures, ANPG's sales volume is 25 million barrels and Sonangol's is about 14 million. There is a decrease of 317,000 barrels by the ANPG and 563 barrels by Sonangol.
He explained that, compared to the previous three months, there was a decrease of 871 thousand barrels, while the gross value of sales decreased by 22 million dollars.
According to the source, the average daily sales volume was around 440,718 barrels, an increase of about 379 barrels/day compared to the first quarter.
In turn, the average sales price was close to US$84 per barrel, which represents an increase of US$1.25 per barrel compared to the first three months of the year.
Brent was at $85 per barrel, which was an increase of about $1 compared to the previous period. ML/VC/DOJ
