President Bola Tinubu is set to commission a new $400 million indigenous crude oil export terminal in Rivers State.1 The facility, known as the Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria in over 50 years.2
The terminal, developed by Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), is located at Ikuru town in the Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.3 Its inauguration is scheduled to take place on October 8. The event is expected to attract top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, along with other key stakeholders from the oil and gas sector.
The new terminal is a significant development for Nigeria’s oil industry, as it aligns with President Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to boosting crude oil production and addressing the country’s long-standing evacuation challenges.4 Industry operators have consistently highlighted evacuation bottlenecks as a major obstacle to meeting the Federal Government’s production target.
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 significantly reduce production costs for indigenous producers.5 It is also expected to provide a new, more secure evacuation route for crude oil, helping to mitigate issues of pipeline vandalism and oil theft that have plagued the industry.6
The chairman and chief executive of GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, has described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure” that will provide a pathway for about 40 stranded oil fields to contribute to the Nigerian economy.7 The project underscores the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to restore investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil sector, which has struggled with various challenges in recent years.
