The decision, duly considered, was taken at a session of the Council of Ministers, guided by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
“We feel that at this moment Angola gains nothing by remaining in the organization and, in defense of its interests, it decided to leave”, he said.
He highlighted that the country has always fulfilled its obligations and fought all the time to see OPEC modernize and help its members obtain advantages.
Speaking to the press, the minister clarified that “when we are in organizations and our contributions, our ideas, do not produce any effect, the best thing is to withdraw”.
The minister stated that it was a sovereign and considered decision, promising that the country will continue to respect the organization, due to the importance and stability of prices.
Angola, he said, will henceforth invest in the search for more oil, in the fight against natural decline, in stabilizing national production and in the efforts of refining, petrochemical, fuel storage and Sonangol transformation strategies.
Angola’s decision to leave OPEC was already, this Thursday, transformed into a decree law, signed by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
Angola protested, at the beginning of the month, the decision of the 36th OPEC+ ministerial meeting to allocate a production quota of one million 110 thousand barrels of crude a day, contradicting the Angolan proposal of one million 180 thousand barrels a day.
Angola voluntarily joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2006.
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 13 nations, founded on September 15, 1960 in Baghdad by the five founding members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela).
It has been headquartered since 1965 in Vienna, Austria, and in September 2018, the 14 member countries represented 44% of global oil production and 81.5% of the world’s proven reserves.
OPEC enjoys great influence on global oil prices, previously determined by the so-called “Seven Sisters” grouping of multinational oil companies. JFS/VIC