Angola’s OPEC departure runs deep

Luanda’s decision to leave the influential group surprised many observers but may have been coming for some time

Angola announced its decision to withdraw from OPEC on 21 December, effective 1 January, after 16 years of membership. In an official statement, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer said that it “needs to concentrate its efforts on implementing the strategies defined in the National Development Plan for the national oil sector”. Angola’s minister of mineral resources, oil and gas, Diamantino Azevedo, said OPEC’s allocation at the end of November of a 1.11m b/d production quota "was not taken unanimously and went against Angola's position”, with Luanda instead targeting 1.18m b/d in 2024. OPEC’s revised quota “would force Angola to cut its production by 70,000b/d”, the statement f