According to Expansão, the income collected from the sale of gas abroad, in the period in question, is already worth three times more than the income obtained from the export of diamonds.
Precious stones have lost strength in the last five years, taking only second place in the table of the country's main export products in 2020, a period in which gas revenue stood at 1,032 million dollars compared to 1,070 million dollars from diamonds, advances the same newspaper.
Last year, revenue from diamond exports rose substantially, reaching the best result in recent years, reaching 1,550 million dollars. However, it was not enough to overtake gas, whose revenues stood at 3,614 million dollars.
Among the justifications is the average price of a barrel of oil equivalent which serves as a reference for gas exports which, according to external statistics from the National Bank of Angola, does not stop growing, writes Expansão.
In the first quarter, adds the same newspaper, the average export value per barrel was around 167.4 dollars while in the second and third quarters the price was between 117.4 dollars and 161.9 dollars, respectively. Values higher than the average price at which they were sold last year (91.4 dollars) and in 2020 (22 dollars).
According to Expansão, the increase in the cost of gas exports has offset the decline in the quantities of this product sold abroad, seen consecutively over the last four years. In other words, between 2019 and last year, the amount exported of gas dropped to 39.551 thousand barrels of oil (21 percent), a trend that could be reversed this year, since between January and September 2022 28.986,2 thousand barrels were exported compared to the 28.735,7 sold in the same period last year.
With regard to precious stones, currently positioned in the third position of the products that are most valuable in terms of gross revenues, average export costs per carat have been increasing, and between 2020 and last year, the average value rose 42 percent (to 177.8 dollars) while in the first quarter of this year the average value was around 250.2 dollars, in the second quarter it was around 230.1 dollars and in the third quarter of this year it was at 197 dollars, writes Expansão.
