Angola to Fully Comply with Oil Cuts after OPEC Pressure

Angola has agreed with OPEC to comply fully with a global pact on supply curbs and will compensate for previous overproduction by cutting more from July to September, two OPEC sources said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to cut oil output from May by a record 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) after the coronavirus crisis destroyed a third of global demand.

The record cuts are now due to run to the end of July, before tapering to 7.7 million bpd until December.

But some OPEC members, including Angola, have not fully delivered on their agreed production cuts since May.

Two sources told Reuters that Angola had now committed to improve its compliance with its quota and to make up for its May and June overproduction by cutting more in July to September.

“Angola has agreed to comply as per (its agreement) with the JMMC,” one of the sources said, referring to the OPEC+ panel, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which advises OPEC+ and holds its next meeting on July 15.

The JMMC, which is chaired by Saudi Arabia and monitors adherence with the oil curbs, has been pressing Angola and other laggards in the pact, such as Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Gabon, to commit to improved compliance.

Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum and state oil company Sonangol did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In May, Angola pumped 1.28 million bpd, according to OPEC data, or 100,000 bpd more than its target. It trimmed production to 1.24 million bpd in June, based on a Reuters survey, 60,000 bpd above its target.