London — Angola's crude oil exports rebounded to a four-month high of 1.63 mil b/d in June even as the OPEC member struggles to arrest declines at some of its ageing deepwater oil fields, finance ministry data showed Friday.
Angola exported 1,627,697 b/d in June compared with 1,425,269 b/d in May but close to the 2017 average export volume of 1,632,766 b/d, according to ministry data.
The country exported a total of 48,830,908 barrels of crude in June at an average price of $71.03/b compared with 44,183,339 barrels of crude in May at an average price of $64.80/b.
There is expected to be a recovery in Angolan oil production as Total's 230,000 b/d Kaombo field started up in late July,
The Angolan oil ministry had reported to OPEC that output in June averaged 1.45 million b/d compared with 1.49 million b/d the previous month.
However, the country's sole refinery in Luanda has been down in June and July which could explain a rise in exports in June, according to sources.
The fall in exports in the past year reflects a similar trend in Angolan oil production, owing to technical and operational problems, especially at its offshore fields, as well as a lack of upstream investment. Production peaked at around 1.9 million b/d in 2008.
Angolan crude export cargoes normally trade more than a month in advance.
The June Angolan export program was released mid-April and trading for those cargoes took place from then to mid-May, meaning the June average price reflects oil prices during that period.
The average price is indexed to the market price, not the tax reference price determined by the oil and finance ministries, and stocks are not included.
