By: Sunday Ameh
President Bola Tinubu will on October 8 commission the $400 million Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State, marking the first new crude export facility to be built in Nigeria in more than five decades.
The terminal, developed by Green Energy International Limited, operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, Ikuru town, Andoni Local Government Area, is Nigeria’s first wholly indigenous onshore crude export terminal since the commissioning of the Forcados Terminal in 1971.
According to a statement by GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, the project aligns with President Tinubu’s drive to boost oil production and ease evacuation challenges that have long plagued the sector.
“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori said.
The commissioning ceremony is expected to attract key figures, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and major stakeholders across the oil and gas industry.
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 projected to serve more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation route.
Chairman and Chief Executive of GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the development as “a game-changing national infrastructure” that could unlock millions of barrels previously left untapped.
The project also signals renewed efforts by the Federal Government to restore investor confidence in the oil sector, which has been hampered in recent years by pipeline vandalism, crude theft, rising costs, and declining production.
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