Angolan oil production is set to decline 36 percent by 2023, according to government data included in the state budget for next year and released on the Ministry of Finance’s website.
The forecast production slide threatens the country’s attempts to escape an economic crisis caused by a collapse in the oil price.
Reuter’s news agency reports that Africa’s second-largest crude producer after Nigeria, Angola remains almost wholly reliant on the commodity, with oil output responsible for 95 percent of foreign exchange revenue and more than 40 percent of gross domestic product.
“The reality of the oil sector will be characterized by a situation of declining production in the coming years due to the various constraints oil companies have encountered to develop their activities,” the draft 2018 state budget said.
The budget was presented to parliament on Friday and uploaded to the Ministry of Finance’s website on Sunday. Lawmakers have until Feb. 15 to approve it.
Oil production, without the approval of new projects, is set to fall from 1.66 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2017 to 1.06 million bpd in 2023, a chart in the budget showed.
Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former president, was sacked as chair of state oil company Sonangol by new president João Lourenço in November, partly due to a paralysis in the sector and a lack of new project approvals.
The budget said the government was looking at ways to avoid the steep decline, by removing obstacles to the development of new fields, particularly blocks 14, 15, 16, 17, 31 and 32.
The measures could, the document said, increase average daily production to 1.7 million barrels. It did not specify the time frame for this average.
