Luanda - Increase in the price of oil recorded in recent weeks on the international market could bring comfort to Angola and shorten the period of payment of the country's debt to creditors, the Mining and Drilling engineer, Joana Francisco, said on Friday.
Speaking to ANGOP on the sidelines of the workshop “Women's vision of the oil sector – Petro talks”, the Angolan expert said that the acceleration of the country's debt settlement will only be possible if the upward trend and price stability of the main export product in Angola continues.
She added that the increase in the value of oil is positive, as it raises the levels of revenue collection, which will serve to accelerate the payment of the country's debt.
Joana Francisco predicted that the direct impact and reflection of the increase in the value of crude in the “citizens' pockets” will not be immediate, but will essentially depend on the stability of the price of oil in the foreign market.
“The steady volatility or fluctuation in the price of Brent makes it difficult to predict. Therefore, it is still premature to predict the period in which the value of oil will be reflected in the pocket of each citizen, due to the unpredictability of the oil market”, she clarified.
The source pointed to the political-military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has caused panic and fear among economic agents, as well as speculation, as the main reasons for the rise in prices on the international market.
On the 7th of this month, Brent, which serves as a reference for exports of Angolan raw materials, reached a price of USD 130.89/barrel, registering the biggest increase since 22 July 2008 (14 years later).
This Friday (11), the price of barrel, for delivery in May, fluctuated between USD 111 to 112.
Based on that price, Angola has a surplus of around USD 53 per barrel, compared to what was projected in the State Budget for 2022 (OGE/2022), which provides for a price of USD59/barrel. However, most of this surplus belongs to the oil companies operating in the country.
According to the Angolan Oil and Gas specialist, Patrício Quingongo, the Angolan State benefits only from the revenues that result from the sale of barrels of oil to which it is entitled, plus the taxes that operators pay through the export of this product.
Speaking to ANGOP, the petroleum engineer recently explained, for example, that, in 2021, of the gross oil revenue of USD 27.28 billion, resulting from the export of 394.22 million barrels of oil, the State was only with a third of this, around USD 10.3 billion, with the remainder being exported by the operators.
