Angola said it is leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to official news agency Angop, after a recent dispute over oil production quotas with the cartel.
The country—one of the cartel’s biggest African producers—was for days at the center of a spat over production quotas that delayed November’s OPEC meeting by four days.
The decision, which was taken at a cabinet meeting and announced by the Angolan oil minister Diamantino de Azevedo on Thursday, came after the oil cartel reduced the country’s oil output target to 1.11 million barrels per day as part of a series of cuts set out at its latest ministerial meeting.
In November, Angola’s crude oil production was 1.13 million barrels a day, OPEC said in its latest report, citing secondary sources. Angola joined OPEC in 2007.
OPEC wasn’t immediately available for comment when contacted by Dow Jones Newswires.
Oil prices fell on the news. At 1427 GMT, with Brent crude traded 1.6% lower at $78.41 a barrel and WTI was down 1.6% at $73.05 a barrel.