Petroleum, as one of the endowed natural resource to our country, Nigeria, gained full importance as a source of energy in 1958 following its discovery in commercial quantity by Shell Petroleum Development Company.
Since then many other oil exploration companies including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have discovered more oil wells. However it should be noted that oil was first discovered at Oloibiri near port-Harcourt, Rivers State in 1956.
And the first major crude oil exported outside the country took place in 1965, and since then, oil has become a major foreign exchange earner to Nigeria.