The Angolan government’s target to produce 2 million barrels of oil per day has been postponed for a further two years, from 2015 to 2017, according to Angola’s Finance Minister, Armando Manuel, speaking in Washington.

The minister also told financial news agency Bloomberg that the state budget for 2015 had been prepared based on a price per barrel of oil of between US$88 and US$92 and said that Angola had called on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to implement measures to prevent further price drops.

The previous target of 2015 was repeatedly stated by Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, who expected several oil exploration projects going into production, including Italian group ENI in Block 15/06, to increase daily output.

The Finance Minister also said that although oil prices are falling, the start of production of new projects could offset that and ensure that the growth of Angola’s economy will not be affected.

“I hope that per barrel prices remain at an acceptable level that does not expose the country to bigger problems,” said Armando Manuel.

According to Bloomberg’s estimates, oil production from Angola stood at 1.87 million barrels per day in September.

On Tuesday the National Bank of Angola reported that foreign reserves fell from US$28.63 billion in July to US$27.03 billion in August.

Angola, which is the second-largest sub-Saharan oil producer obtains 95 percent of its foreign reserves from crude oil exports.