Oil & Energy
GEIL To Unveil $400m Indigenous Crude Oil Terminal in Rivers
All is now set for the unveiling of the indigenous $400m Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Terminal in Rivers State, billed for Wednesday, October 8, and to be performed by the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The facility, developed by Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, located in Ikuru-Town, in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria as the last of such facility, the Forcados Terminal, was commissioned back in 1971.
The unveiling would attract top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and other major stakeholders across the nation’s oil and gas sector.
With the much struggling with declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and rising operational costs in recent years, the Otakikpo Onshore Terminal further underscores the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to restore investor confidence in the nation’s oil sector.
The Executive Director, Legal and Corporate Services, GEIL, Olusegun Ilori, in a Statement, last Thursday, said 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.
On his part, the Chairman and Chief Executive, GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure.”
Adegbulugbe said “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”.
It would be noted that industry operators, over the years, have consistently highlighted evacuation bottlenecks as a major impediment to meeting the Federal Government’s production target of 3m bpd.
The Otakikpo terminal is expected to serve as a lifeline to more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation outlet, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude previously 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 reduce production costs for indigenous producers significantly.
By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu