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Angola wins OPEC membership bid, to join from March 1: Qatar
AFP
ABUJA
Petroleumworld.com 12 14 06Angola has won the backing of existing OPEC members to join the organisation and will become a member on March 1, ministers said on Thursday.
"Angola will be a full member from the first of March," Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said after a meeting of the cartel here.
The southern African country currently produces 1.4 million barrels a day and aims to raise this figure to two million by the end of next year.
The admission of the country is seen as extending the influence of OPEC, which already produces about a third of world oil supplies.
Analysts at investment bank Lehman Brothers recently said Angola would boost the world market share of OPEC to 35 percent from 32 percent, but they warned that the decision would create uncertainty for foreign oil companies operating in the former Portuguese colony.
Exxon of the United States, Total of France and British group BP are all active in the country, which has seen a surge in interest since the end of its 27-year civil war in 2002.
"Only now we asked to be member but our wish to join OPEC is since our independence" in 1975, said Angolan Oil Minister Desiderio da Gracia Verissimo e Costa as he made the application to join earlier on Thursday.
Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil confirmed that Angola would be welcomed into OPEC.
"Angola has become a member of OPEC. It will join in March," he said.
Angola is the first member to join OPEC since Gabon became a member in 1975. Gabon has since left the cartel.
AFP 14 1356 GMT 12 06
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