Olushola Omogbehin
President Bola Tinubu is set to commission the $400m Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State on October 8, the first new crude export facility to be built in Nigeria in over 50 years.
The facility, developed by Green Energy International Limited, operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, Ikuru town, Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria.
The last one before Otakikpo Terminal, which is the Forcados Terminal was commissioned in 1971
According to a statement by the firm, Governor Simnalayi Fubara, top government functionaries at the federal level and key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to be led by the Hon Minister of State Petroleum (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri will attend the inauguration.
A statement by GEIL’s Executive Director of Legal and Corporate Services, Olusegun Ilori, the terminal aligns with President Tinubu’s drive to boost crude oil production and address Nigeria’s long-standing evacuation challenges.
“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori said.
Operators in the oil and gas sector have identified evacuation challenges as a major barrier to achieving the Federal Government’s goal of producing three million barrels of crude oil per day.
The Otakikpo terminal is expected to provide a lifeline to over 40 stranded oil fields who now has a ready evacuation outlet thus unlocking million of barrels of oil otherwise held down in the wells.
The $400m new terminal with an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels expandable to three million barrels and a loading capacity of 360,000 barrels per day is also expected to support the government’s objective of lowering production cost in the industry.
