By Brian Okoth
Angola has announced that it is leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after 17 years.
OPEC, which has 13 oil-exporting nations, coordinates and unifies petroleum policies of the member states to ensure stabilisation of oil markets.
On Thursday, Angola said it was leaving the organisation after a dispute with OPEC over oil production quotas. OPEC assigns oil output quotas to its member nations.
Angola's Oil Minister Diamantino de Azevedo announced that President Joao Lourenco had approved Angola's withdrawal from OPEC after a cabinet meeting.
'Gains nothing'
"We feel that at this moment, Angola gains nothing by remaining in OPEC. In defence of its interests, Angola has decided to leave the organisation," de Azevedo said in the capital Luanda.
"When we are in organisations and our contributions, our ideas, do not produce any effect, the best thing (for us) is to withdraw," he added.
President Lourenco signed into law Angola's withdrawal from OPEC on Thursday, Angolan news agency, Angop, reports.
Angola had rejected a reduced output limit imposed by leaders of the organisation to reflect the country's reduced production capacity.
Dispute
On November 20, Angola's OPEC governor Estevao Pedro said in an interview with Bloomberg that the country "will produce above the quota determined by OPEC."
"It is not a matter of disobeying OPEC; we presented our position, and OPEC should take it into consideration."
The OPEC-Angola row delayed the organisation's planned meeting in November for four days.
Angola had been handed a quota that it rejected as "unfair." The African nation had been allocated 1.11 million barrels per day from January 2024, but it said it was in a position to produce up to 1.18 million barrels daily.
Reduced quotas
Angola, Congo and Nigeria were the OPEC member states pushed to accept reduced quotas by Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.
Ecuador, which faced a similar situation as Angola, got into a dispute with OPEC in 2017 after its quota was reduced by the organisation.
OPEC, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, enjoys significant influence on global oil prices. Angola voluntarily joined the organisation in 2006.
As of 2018, OPEC's 14 member states at the time accounted for 44% of global oil production and 81.5% of the world's proven reserves.
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