Production outages and maintenance are set to push Angola's oil exports to a 13-year low, according to an industry source quoted by Reuters.
There are just 38 oil cargoes scheduled in June, a 10-cargo loss from May levels and represents the lowest exports since this data first began to be tracked in 2006. Just 1.2 million barrels per day are scheduled to be exported from Angola in June. Exports averaged 1.58 million barrels per day in 2017.
The lower exports are a result of production issues at Angola's Girassol offshore platform this month, along with a shutdown of its Saturno oilfield to conduct necessary maintenance.
Angola's oil production has slowly dropped over recent years, averaging 1.63 million bpd in 2017 and 1.51 million bpd in 2018, before falling to 1.45 million in the first quarter of this year, according to secondary sources from OPEC's Monthly Oil Market Report, as aging fields struggle to maintain their rates. Its production cut cap under the OPEC agreement is 1.481 million bpd-higher than what Angola is currently producing.
Angola has implemented several new measures over the last year to try and increase its oil production. Measures included reducing tax rates on smaller oil discoveries and creating an agency that would handle oil blocks up for auction rather than its poorly reputed state-run oil company, Sonangol.
Crude oil represents almost 90 percent of all exports from Angola-most of which makes its way to China-and accounts for 80 percent of all government revenues, according to the Republic of Angola website.
The most recent development in Angola's oil industry is the Kaombo Sul project by France's Total, which started up earlier this month, adding 115,000 barrels per day to existing capacity.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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