Angola is leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) because membership is not serving its interests, oil minister Diamantino Azevedo said on Thursday.

Angola, which joined OPEC in 2007, produces about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, compared with 28 million bpd for the whole group.

Confirming an earlier report by local news agency ANGOP, Azevedo told public television the decision to leave was because OPEC membership was not serving Angola's interests, but did not give further details.

Oil prices extended losses on the news, with Brent prices down over $1 to $78.50 a barrel by 1250 GMT.

Angola's exit is a setback for OPEC and its allies, just as the group tries to get members to cut output to support prices.

Last month, Azevedo's office protested a decision by OPEC to cut its production quota for 2024. Bloomberg also quoted Angola's OPEC Governor Estevao Pedro as saying the country was unhappy with its 2024 target and did not plan to stick to it.

Disagreements over African output quotas had earlier helped delay a meeting of the wider OPEC+ oil producer group.

OMOx4:
Nigeria should follow suit immediately

nairalanda1:
Anyone hailing Angola on leaving OPEC...should know it is bad news for Nigeria.

Oil prices fell on the news. Know what that means? It means Angola is free to produce and pump as much oil as it wants without any pesky OPEC quota...which means lower oil prices long term because of the resultant glut.

This weakens our revenue stream drastically, meaning we have to take more and more loans, or the government would have to raise your taxes well well, in the short term at least.

So, don't rejoice.