Burutu
Niger Delta port since the 1890s when Royal Niger Company moved from silted Akassa—170-year-old shipyard, oil discovered 1964, exports palm oil and northern goods via Forcados River. Survival depends on keeping channels clear.
Burutu exists because the Akassa channel silted up. When the Royal Niger Company's main port at Akassa became unnavigable in the late 1890s, the company shifted operations westward to Burutu, 20 miles up the Forcados River from the Bight of Benin. The port's survival has depended on keeping channels open—a constant battle against the Niger Delta's sediment load.
The town straddles both banks of the Forcados River, one of the Niger Delta's many distributaries. In the 1850s, a shipyard with three slipways was built here, making Burutu one of West Africa's oldest industrial marine facilities. By the late 19th century, it became the link between river transport and ocean shipping: goods from Nigeria's interior—palm oil, palm kernels, rubber, timber—moved downriver to Burutu, then transferred to seagoing vessels. The United African Company of Nigeria operated the port through the colonial period, exporting not just delta products but also peanuts and cotton from the far north and Chad, shipped down via the Niger River system.
Oil changed the equation. In 1964, offshore petroleum deposits were discovered near Burutu. By 1965, Nigeria exported its first crude oil from a loading point at sea off the delta. The delta's economy pivoted from palm oil to petroleum. In 1969, the Nigerian Ports Authority took control of Burutu from UAC, consolidating port operations nationally. But oil wealth didn't flow to port towns like Burutu—it flowed to Lagos, to international oil companies, to federal coffers. The Niger Delta became Nigeria's energy source while remaining its poorest region.
By 2025, Burutu's shipyard—170 years old—is being revived by community leaders, a marine polytechnic, and private investors. The port still exports palm products, timber, rubber, sesame seeds, and peanuts from Kogi, Benue, and Plateau states. But the infrastructure is aging. The channels still silt. The delta's environmental degradation from decades of oil extraction affects fishing and farming. Burutu remains what it always was: a transshipment node where river meets sea, dependent on the maintenance of channels and the flow of goods it cannot control.