Rivers State, Nigeria — In a major breakthrough for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, indigenous energy firm Green Energy International Limited (GEIL) has successfully completed the first oil export from its newly built Otakikpo crude oil terminal, marking a significant milestone in the country’s energy infrastructure development.
The export, carried out by Shell’s off-taker vessel MV at 14:00 hours on Thursday, is the first of its kind from an indigenous onshore crude export facility in over five decades. The terminal, located in Rivers State and operated by GEIL, cost over $400 million to develop.
In a statement, GEIL Chairman Prof. Anthony Adegbulugbe expressed deep appreciation to God, the company’s resilient all-Nigerian workforce, and regulatory agencies that supported the project. He described the achievement as “epoch-making” and a testament to local capacity and technical excellence.
“This project, the first privately developed crude oil terminal by an African operator, was completed ahead of schedule in under two years,” Adegbulugbe said.
With an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels and the potential to scale up to three million barrels, the Otakikpo terminal also features a pumping capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, enabling it to load export tankers efficiently. It is set to be a game-changer in Nigeria’s oil export strategy.
Currently, the Otakikpo field produces around 10,000 barrels per day, but the terminal is engineered to handle up to 250,000 barrels per day of crude injection, making it an attractive hub for third-party producers, especially the more than 40 stranded fields nearby, which collectively hold an estimated three billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).
With a projected full-phase investment of $1.3 billion, GEIL’s Otakikpo terminal signals a bold commitment to transforming Nigeria’s indigenous oil export landscape and opening new frontiers for local and regional players in the energy market.
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