Otakikpo crude oil export terminal: A witness to history

This past week, Wednesday to be precise, in Andoni, Rivers State, I was a witness to history at the grand inauguration of Green Energy’s $400 million Otakikpo Crude Oil Terminal.

President Bola Tinubu was represented at the event by Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri. The Otakikpo Terminal is significant in many ways. One, it is the first of its kind in Nigeria in the past 50 years.

The existing five crude export terminals are owned by International Oil Companies and have been in operation for more than 50 years. This is the latest addition in five decades, and it is more exciting because it is owned by an indigenous firm.

A major oil and gas infrastructure, the project started two years ago and was completed ahead of schedule and delivered 100 percent by local engineers under the leadership of the executive chairman of the company, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe. By this example, Professor Adegbulugbe has shown us what is possible beyond classrooms.

Our academics can actually move from theory to practice. For 10 years, Professor Adegbulugbe was the Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He was a substantial contributor to the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize alongside United States Vice-President Al Gore.

The Otakikpo Terminal, with a 23-kilometre pipeline into the sea for vessels to load, was delivered in two years without any injury or incident, adhering to the highest compliance standards and safety procedures, further attesting to the ability of Nigerians to undertake major oil and gas projects.

Interesting statistics about the terminal:

1. A storage of 750,000 barrels and with the capacity to expand to 3,000,000 to accommodate higher crude oil production.

2. The facility will unlock 200,000 bpd stranded in Oil Wells owned by marginal field operators within the axis.

3. The facility can handle 250,000 barrels of crude oil export per day with in-built capacity to expand to 350,000.

Otakikpo faced a lot of challenges as expected of any project, but those challenges, some institutional and bureaucratic, were decoupled and resolved by the President Tinubu administration in keeping with the agenda to drive local and international investments across sectors.

For the people of Andoni and Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general, Otakikpo is a monument for social mobility and economic prosperity, and it must be preserved and protected by all means necessary.

Ajayi is the senior special assistant to President Tinubu on media and publicity