LONDON: Angola's crude oil exports are expected to fall to 1.46 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, the lowest in more than four years, according to provisional loading programmes released on Wednesday.
The total, down nearly 20 percent from the 1.8 million bpd schedule for December, is the lowest export plan since June 2011, according to Reuters data.
Traders said final exports were likely to rise, with Angolan state oil company Sonangol expected to add at least one cargo of Plutonio, which was missing entirely from the provisional programme.
Still, the decline in planned exports offered a rare bullish signal in an increasingly oversupplied global crude oil market. As many as eight of Angola's own December cargoes have yet to find buyers, a large number for this late in the month.
The 47 cargoes on the schedule compared with 58 originally planned for December. The lack of Plutonio cargoes was a sharp drop from the four in the December plan, while there was also one less cargo of each of Girassol, Kissanje, Nemba, Sangos and Saturno, and no Gimboa, which is only periodically exported.
Angola said on Wednesday that it expects to produce an average 1.89 million bpd of crude oil next year, slightly higher than 2015. Government debt in Africa's second largest oil exporter is forecast to total around 50 percent of GDP next year, up from 46 percent recorded last month.
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