"Angola's oil production for the month of December was 34,798,255 barrels, corresponding to a daily average of 1,122,524 barrels of oil, against 1,169,451 predicted" officially, reads on the Angolan oil regulator's website, the second largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa, which thus confirms a drop of 4.1 percent compared to the estimate for December.
The release of data from December 2023 allows us to know the production of the total year, which, according to the analysis of the economic studies office of Banco Fomento Angola (BFA), was around 400 million barrels, which results in production daily of 1.09 million, about 3.6 percent below the previous year's production.
"The second half of the year was marked by a recovery in production levels, with maximum levels since August 2022 being reached in July", points out the BFA, noting that the first half of the year was 5 percent below the average production of the second half of 2023.
From July to December, it is also noted in the weekly commentary on the Angolan economy, sent to customers and to which Lusa had access, "the average production was 1.12 mbd, an increase of 5 percent compared to the first half of the year and 1.2 percent compared to the same period in 2022", largely supported by maintenance work on the Dália field in several months of the first half of the year.
For this year, BFA expects "that the slight increase trend will continue throughout 2024, with an average production close to 1.11 mbd", above the forecast expressed in the General State Budget of 1.06 million barrels.
In an interview with Lusa last week, BFA's chief economist, José Miguel Cerdeira, had stated that the scenario for the oil economy is "between stagnation and slight growth", pointing to an expansion of 0.3 to 0.8 percent, which will make the total economy grow between 1.9 and 2.4 percent.
