Angola Announces Exit from OPEC

Angolan government announced on Thursday the country's withdrawal from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over disagreements on oil production quota.

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The decision was taken after a session of the Council of Ministers, chaired by Angolan President Joao Lourenco, at the Presidential Palace in Luanda, the national capital.

According to Oil Minister Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, quoted by the government's Facebook page, OPEC membership no longer served the African country's interests.

"Angola has always fulfilled its obligations and fought all the time to see OPEC modernize and help its members gain advantages. We feel that at this moment Angola gains nothing by staying in the organization and, in defense of its interests, decided to leave," Azevedo said in the press room of the Presidential Palace.

"If we remained in OPEC (…) Angola would be forced to cut production and this goes against our policy of avoiding decline and respecting contracts," the minister said, noting that the decision was not taken lightly.

"When we see that we are in organizations and our contributions, our ideas do not produce any effect, it is better to withdraw. We joined in 2006 voluntarily and decided to leave now also voluntarily. And this is not an unconsidered, impulsive decision," he said. 

Earlier this month, the OPEC group announced updated production quotas for some countries, as agreed at the previous ministerial meeting in June.

According to independent sources, production levels for Angola, Congo and Nigeria were set at 1.11 million barrels per day (bpd), 277,000 bpd and 1.5 million bpd, respectively. This move in updating production quotas caused discontent from some countries.

Angola, an OPEC member since 2007, produces over 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil. The African country is the second-largest oil producer on the continent.