By Muhammad Mamman
President Bola Tinubu will, on 8 October, commission the $400 million Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State—the first new crude export facility to be established in Nigeria in more than half a century.
The terminal, developed by Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, Ikuru Town, Andoni Local Government Area, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal ever built in the country. The last comparable facility, the Forcados Terminal, was inaugurated in 1971.
The high-profile event is expected to draw senior government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and leading figures from the oil and gas sector.
According to GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, the project reflects President Tinubu’s commitment to boosting oil production while resolving Nigeria’s long-standing crude evacuation challenges.
“This project is a strategic national infrastructure that supports the administration’s drive to raise output while cutting costs,” Ilori stated.
Industry operators have long identified evacuation bottlenecks as a major barrier to achieving the Federal Government’s production target of three million barrels per day.
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 Otakikpo terminal is expected to significantly lower operating costs for indigenous producers while providing a reliable outlet for more than 40 previously stranded oil fields.
Describing the facility as “game-changing national infrastructure,” GEIL Chairman and Chief Executive, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, noted:
“What we have delivered is not just a storage facility, but a pathway for about 40 stranded fields to finally contribute meaningfully to the national economy.”
The commissioning comes as the Federal Government steps up efforts to restore investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil industry, which in recent years has grappled with declining output, pipeline vandalism, theft, and rising production costs.
