President Bola Tinubu will on October 8 inaugurate the $400 million Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State, the first new crude export facility to be built in Nigeria in more than five decades.
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 in the country. The last such facility, the Forcados Terminal, was commissioned in 1971.
Top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, are expected at the inauguration, alongside key industry stakeholders.
GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, said the project aligns with the administration’s push to boost oil production and tackle evacuation bottlenecks that have long hampered Nigeria’s output.
“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori stated.
The Otakikpo terminal is designed to serve more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation route, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude that had remained inaccessible.
With an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, expandable to three million, and a loading capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, the facility is expected to significantly lower costs for indigenous producers.
GEIL Chairman and Chief Executive, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the project as “game-changing national infrastructure,” noting that it offers not only storage but also a pathway for stranded oil fields to contribute to Nigeria’s economy.
The development comes as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to attract investment and stabilise the oil sector, which has faced declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and high operating costs in recent years.