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The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has hailed the commissioning of the Otakikpo Crude Oil Export Terminal arsenic a landmark accomplishment that volition alteration the country’s upstream lipid and state sector.
Announced connected the NUPRC’s verified X grip connected Friday, the terminal is celebrated arsenic the archetypal afloat indigenous onshore export terminal successful implicit 5 decades, marking a caller section for Nigeria’s crude export infrastructure.
The Otakikpo Terminal, commissioned successful Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu connected Wednesday, October 8, 2025, boasts a retention capableness of 750,000 barrels—expandable to 3 cardinal barrels—and a pumping capableness of up to 360,000 barrels per day. Since its launch, the installation has successfully completed 4 export operations, cumulatively moving implicit 1 cardinal barrels of crude lipid wrong conscionable 4 months of operation.
NUPRC CEO Gbenga Komolafe described the terminal arsenic “historic connected 2 levels,” emphasising its captious relation successful expanding Nigeria’s export infrastructure astatine a clip erstwhile existing facilities specified arsenic the Bonny and Forcados terminals are congested and operating adjacent to capacity. Komolafe explained that Otakikpo importantly reduces dependence connected these overburdened terminals, cutting costs and eliminating delays, which enhances the ratio and information of Nigeria’s crude exports.
Komolafe praised indigenous operators for present producing much than 30 per cent of Nigeria’s nationalist crude output, asserting that terminals similar Otakikpo exemplify Nigerian companies’ capableness to physique and run sophisticated, world-class lipid infrastructure.
He reflected connected however erstwhile large terminals, constructed from the 1960s done 1970s, were developed by multinational lipid firms specified arsenic Shell, Chevron, BP, and Agip, making Otakikpo’s indigenous root a milestone successful the nation’s petroleum manufacture history.
Highlighting the terminal’s strategical importance, Komolafe noted its alignment with Nigeria’s near-term crude lipid accumulation people of 1.8 cardinal barrels per day, ensuring businesslike evacuation capableness to enactment nationalist output growth. The caller export hub lessens the hazard of information issues and pipeline disruptions by diversifying export points beyond the accepted terminals successful Rivers State.
The terminal’s interaction extends beyond export volumes. It unlocks implicit 40 stranded lipid fields successful the region, with estimated reserves exceeding 3 cardinal barrels. Once afloat developed, these fields could boost Nigeria’s accumulation by implicit 200,000 barrels per day, further enhancing the country’s presumption successful planetary lipid markets.
Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, president and CEO of Green Energy International Limited, the indigenous institution down Otakikpo, hailed the task arsenic a awesome of Nigerian ingenuity and method expertise.
Completed up of docket successful little than 2 years and wholly by Nigerian talent, the terminal is simply a testament to the country’s increasing capabilities successful upstream lipid and state development.
Adegbulugbe credited the project’s occurrence to progressive policies nether the Renewed Hope Agenda, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and reforms instituted by the Petroleum Industry Act. He besides lauded enactment from the Ministry of State for Petroleum, led by Dr. Heineken Lokpobiri, and regulatory bodies, including NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), whose transparency and clarity helped thrust the timely completion of the facility.
Expressing gratitude to the fiscal assemblage and chap E&P operators, Adegbulugbe emphasised that the commissioning of Otakikpo is conscionable the opening of a broader translation of the vigor sector.
He urged manufacture stakeholders, government, and investors to capitalise connected this momentum and afloat realise Nigeria’s immense vigor imaginable for nationalist development.
In concluding remarks, Professor Adegbulugbe dedicated the terminal’s occurrence to the engineers, workers, visionaries, and the Nigerian radical whose corporate efforts person inaugurated a caller epoch of indigenous excellence successful the country’s upstream lipid and state industry. He affirmed Nigeria’s readiness to pb and present globally competitory vigor projects, defining its vigor aboriginal with section capableness and innovation.
The Otakikpo Terminal volition beryllium a game-changer not lone for crude export capableness but besides arsenic a bold objection of Nigeria’s evolving vigor landscape, wherever indigenous operators are taking centre signifier successful securing the nation’s lipid and state future.
English (US) ·