Angola’s representative to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Thursday that the African country had no intention of leaving the organization after the Angolan delegation walked out of talks on Wednesday evening.
“There are no thoughts in this direction at the moment,” Angola’s OPEC spokesman Estevan Pedro said in a statement to financial news agency Bloomberg after the cartel postponed a meeting on Wednesday due to disagreements over production quota cuts. , especially from African countries.
Wednesday’s meeting was interrupted and postponed until next Thursday after members of the cartel, which represents most of the world’s oil production, disagreed over production targets for African countries including Portuguese-speaking Angola and Equatorial Guinea, international agencies said. Nigeria. .
Saudi Arabia and its allies wanted to impose lower quotas on African countries’ oil production in a bid to boost prices for next year, but have faced opposition from those targeted as they seek to boost production, and therefore revenues, in the context of economic growth. difficulties in the region.
Angola’s dispute with OPEC could prove “intractable” because the country is unwilling to accept quota cuts, said Helima Croft, director of commodities at RBC Capital Markets.
“We’re a little more unsure about the longevity of the partnership. [entre Angola e a OPEP]but we do not see the potential exit as significant for the operation of the organization,” the analyst added.
He believed that, on the contrary, Nigeria would be easier to persuade because of the “value it places on partnership with OPEC and strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia”, a country that Nigeria’s new president recently visited to attract foreign investment.
“Delaying the meeting like this is an important thing, it’s not easy to do,” Ian Stewart, an energy economist at consultancy Piper Sandler, told Bloomberg.
Wednesday’s differences return to those that emerged in June, when Angola, the Republic of Congo and Nigeria were forced by Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to agree to cut production limits for 2024, reflecting the African countries’ weak capacity for both influence and for influence. and for oil production.
Nigeria, for example, showed that it could exceed the quota agreed in June for 2024, producing 36 thousand barrels per day more than the limit, to 1.416 million barrels per day, Bloomberg reports.
The postponement of the OPEC meeting had little impact on markets, with Brent crude for January delivery opening the session at $81.37 a barrel, only slightly below the $81.96 it closed the session at on Wednesday.