The prices of oil futures declined on Thursday after Angola announced its decision to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The move seemingly stirred investors’ hopes there would be more supply as the African country previously voiced opposition to the group’s recent decisions, including the one on production cuts. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for deliveries in February decreased by 1.52% at 7:50 am ET to sell for $72.11 per barrel. At the same time, Brent for the same month’s settlements dropped by 1.37% to go for $78.55 per barrel. Angola and another African OPEC member, Nigeria, had a spat with the other cartel members before the latest meeting regarding their oil production quotas. At a meeting in June, Angola and Nigeria were given lower crude oil production quotas as part of the OPEC+ agreement, after the two producers had underperformed and failed to pump to their quotas for years, due to a lack of investment in new fields and maturing older oilfields. The most recent spat within OPEC about the African countries’ quotas was one of the reasons for the cartel to postpone its latest meeting within a few days. African OPEC members Angola, Congo, and Nigeria were forced to commit to lower output in 2024, and the originally scheduled November 26 meeting could potentially have pressured them to make further production cuts, as the Saudis expressed discontent over compliance with the deal as it shoulders the bulk of the burden.