IMPORTANT NEWS: Angola Exits OPEC Membership After 16 Years Due to Oil Production Cuts
After 16 years of membership, the African country has left the cartel.
After Angola quit OPEC, several members reaffirmed their commitment to the organization and its objectives.
An African nation announced earlier this week that it no longer wanted to be a member of OPEC. As part of the group's effort to curb production and support oil prices, the cartel asked Angola to cut production by 1.1 million barrels a day, below the nation's current output. With the departure of the country, the group now consists of 12 countries.
Our firm support for unity and cohesion in OPEC and OPEC+ is reiterated. As a result of Angola's departure, Congo's minister of hydrocarbons, Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, said, "Each member plays an indispensable role in the achievement of our shared objectives and maintaining the balance of the global oil market."
His country is "resolute in its commitment to OPEC's objectives while actively engaging with the organization to address concerns that resonate both within our nation's borders as well as across the continent," writes Heineken Lokpobiri on X (formerly Twitter).
According to Iraq News Agency spokesman Assem Jihad, OPEC is attempting to achieve the highest rates of balance between supply and demand to maintain stability on the global oil market. In order to meet its own new quota, the country is expected to cut some of the group's biggest supplies next month.
In recent years, Qatar, Indonesia, and Ecuador have all left OPEC for various reasons. However, some experts warn that Angola's move may signal increasing discontent with OPEC's production cuts.
Since late 2022, OPEC and OPEC+ members have taken a series of steps to stabilize the global oil market and support crude prices, which have fallen by about 20% since then. OPEC+ members last month agreed to deepen production cuts to about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of next year, but said they would gradually increase output in the second quarter if market conditions were favorable.
