President Bola Tinubu is set to inaugurate the $400 million Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State on October 8. This will be the first new crude export terminal to be built in Nigeria in over 50 years.
The terminal, developed by Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11 at Ikuru town, Andoni Local Government Area, is the first wholly indigenous onshore export facility in the country. The last onshore terminal, Forcados, 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 from across the oil and gas sector.
According to a statement from GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, the terminal aligns with President Tinubu’s plan to boost crude oil production and tackle long-standing evacuation challenges.
“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori said.
Evacuation bottlenecks have long been cited by industry operators as a major hurdle to meeting the Federal Government’s target of three million barrels per day.
The Otakikpo terminal is expected to serve as a critical outlet for more than 40 stranded oil fields, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude that have remained 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 oil producers.
Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, Chairman and CEO of GEIL, described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure.”
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“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 highlights the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to restore investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil sector, which has faced declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and rising operational costs in recent years.
