Angola quits OPEC over lower production quotas

ANGOLA – Angola has announced that it is leaving the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil producers cartel.

Africanews reported that this came after the country battled with the group over lower production quotas this year.

The country joined OPEC in 2007.

Diamantino de Azevedo, the African nation’s oil minister, said Angola “does not gain anything by remaining in the organisation,” according to state news agency Angop.

Disagreements over lower oil quotas for some African countries, including Angola, led to an usual days-long delay to OPEC’s November meeting, where the group, along with allied producers led by Russia, decide how much oil to send to the world.

At the meeting, Angola’s production level was dropped to 1.11 million barrels per month after an assessment by the three independent sources, the organisation said.

OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, had been trying to bolster oil prices that had fallen in recent months over concerns about too much crude circulating in a weakening global economy, which could weigh on the thirst for oil for travel and industry.

The lower prices was reported to be a good thing for United States drivers, who had been able to fill their gas tanks for less money in recent months but have hurt the bottom line of OPEC oil producers.

The price of U.S. benchmark crude had fallen eight percent this year.

Oil prices had gotten a boost in recent days as Yemen’s Houthi rebels have escalated attacks on ships in the Red Sea and companies have diverted vessels from traveling through the area, where huge amounts of the world’s energy supplies transit between the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

While losing Angola, OPEC announced at its meeting last month that it was bringing Brazil into the fold, a major oil producer that has been producing record amounts of crude this year, according to the International Energy Agency.

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