Angola ended 16 years of membership in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at a time in which it appears to have chosen to move closer to the United States – a chronic opponent of the existence of the cartel led by Saudi Arabia – risking to open an irritating clash with that Middle Eastern country, which last year lent Angola 110 million dollars for the construction of an industrial park in the municipality of Catumbela, in the province of Benguela. This is the fear expressed by the local newspaper Expansao a few weeks after the exit from OPEC announced by Angola and with which, yes, the country will save 8 million dollars a year, but it positions itself on a collision course with the Saudis .
Yet, the newspaper recalls, relations with Saudi Arabia had never been as close as in August last year, when a representative of the Saudi king went to Angola to announce the opening of a diplomatic representation, a project which however it hasn’t seen the light yet.
For experts, the closure of OPEC, at a time when the cartel is trying at all costs to cut production to influence prices, could have a high cost for Angola, in search of financing for its general state budget (OGE) and public investment. “If we look at the situation of the country, which is negative from a financial point of view, and as we all know it has an Oge of which over half is financed, and if we look at who is investing in the country in recent times, we see that investments are increasing they have started to flow in from the countries of the Middle East”, explains José Oliveira, collaborator of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (CEIC) of the Catholic University of Angola.
As for the government’s justifications for leaving the oil producers’ cartel, due to the fact that OPEC wanted to cut the national production quota to 1,110 million barrels per day (70 thousand less than what Angola expected), there are many voices that question the veracity of this argument. This is because the 1,180 million barrels/day requested by Angola are higher than the 1,060 million recorded in the Oge and history shows that the country has not reached its budgeted production targets since at least 2013.
Various theories are circulating for the decision to close the doors to OPEC. And one of them is the “US hand” in the process. There are several voices that put forward the hypothesis that Angola left to get closer to the United States, focusing on an alleged agreement between presidents Biden and Lourenço, who met at the end of 2023 at the White House, in an initiative that aimed to show a new era in relations between the two countries as the North Americans are trying to gain ground in Africa and reduce China’s weight on the continent. [Da Redazione InfoAfrica]
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