President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to inaugurate the $400m Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State on October 8, the first new crude export facility to be built in Nigeria in over 50 years.
The facility, developed by Green Energy International Limited, operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, Ikuru town, Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria. The last such facility, the Forcados Terminal, was commissioned in 1971.
The inauguration is expected to attract top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and key stakeholders across the oil and gas sector.
According to a statement signed by GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, on Thursday, the terminal aligns with President Tinubu’s drive to boost crude oil production and address Nigeria’s long-standing evacuation challenges.
“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori said.
Industry operators have consistently highlighted evacuation bottlenecks as a major obstacle to meeting the Federal Government’s production target of three million barrels per day.
The Otakikpo terminal is expected to serve as a lifeline to more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation outlet, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude previously trapped underground.
With an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, expandable to three million barrels, and a loading capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, the facility is also projected to significantly reduce production costs for indigenous producers.
Chairman and Chief Executive of GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure.”
“What we have achieved here is not just a storage solution, but a pathway for about 40 stranded oil fields to finally contribute to the economy,” Adegbulugbe said.
The inauguration underscores renewed efforts by the Federal Government to restore investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil sector, which has struggled with declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and rising operational costs in recent years.
By Damilola Aina @ThePUNCH
