GPPi Fellow comments on Angolan oil production

GPPi Fellow Ricardo Soares de Oliveira was quoted by the Financial Times on a recent special report on Angola’s booming oil industry. Angola’s decision to join the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) before it reached the peak of its oil production capacity has taken many experts by surprise. More surprising still, is the OPEC’s decision to cap Angola’s oil production at 1.9 million barrels per day, an output most experts suggest Angola can comfortably exceed. Some observers claim Angola’s decision demonstrates its eagerness to join the international club and return to the world stage after almost three decades of civil war.

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira remarked, ​“The decision was broadly political on both sides… My impression is that it’s no longer a tug of war between OPEC and Angola for the quota to kick in. Angola will have to make out they are doing something to abide by the agreement. But OPEC will be far more generous with them than with other producers.”

This special report coincides with GPPi’s upcoming session on the politics of oil in Africa, co-organized with the Harvard Centre for European Studies Berlin. The session, entitled the ​“The New Scramble for Africa: Oil, Geopolitics and the Quest for the Development Dividend”, is scheduled for Monday 11 February 2008 and will take place at the Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin. Speaking at the event will be Ricardo Soares de Oliveria, contributing author to Bottom of the Barrel: Africa’s Oil Boom and the Poor, and author of the recently published book Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea. The event will be chaired by GPPi’s Associate Director Thorsten Benner.