SFG:Angola Sees Current $114 Brent Crude Price as 'Reasonable
(Updates with minister's comments from second paragraph.)
June 7 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC-member Angola is comfortable with current prices for Brent crude of $114 to $115 a barrel, the country's oil minister said before flying to Vienna for the group's meeting to review its target for oil production.
"At that level it can be considered acceptable," Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said today in the country's capital city, Luanda. "For us, the price is reasonable, is good."
Angola is one of 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The group meets tomorrow to consider a possible increase in output amid signs that oil prices may be hurting the global economy. July contracts of Brent crude, a benchmark for Angolan oil, were trading at $114.45 a barrel, down 3 cents, at 12:13 p.m. on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Angola, which vies with Nigeria as Africa's top oil producer, will not reach its annual target of 1.9 million barrels a day, de Vasconcelos said. "As a yearly average, it will not be possible," he said. "We're working to recover production that fell by the end of last year, mainly in Block 18 where the production drop was drastic."
The nation's output in May averaged 1.6 million barrels to 1.65 million barrels a day, "very far from 1.9 million planned in the state budget," he said. Angola pumped 1.61 million barrels a day on average last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Sonangol Holdings, the state oil company, continues to look for a new partner to take over the stake that Exxon Mobil Corp. holds in the Block 31 concession, de Vasconcelos said.
