Africa’s third-biggest oil producer, Equatorial Guinea, has been accepted as a new member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a source close to the country’s oil minister told a Reuters on Thursday.

Equatorial Guinea said in January it was seeking to become OPEC’s 14th member and the sixth from Africa, an addition that would help raise the continent’s influence and profile in the corridors of global oil production and pricing. [nL5N1FD2KP]

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by James Macharia)