Lugard's coal port that became Nigeria's oil gateway
Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, is Nigeria's fourth-most-populous city, built in 1912 to export Enugu coal 243 kilometers north by new rail. Frederick Lugard named it in August 1913 for Lewis Harcourt. Crude oil's first Nigerian export shipment left through the city in 1958, pivoting the economy to petroleum.
Geologist Albert Ernest Kitson found coal at Enugu in 1909, and Frederick Lugard, then governing both the northern and southern Nigerian protectorates, needed a harbour to ship it. The colonial government made the people of Diobu surrender their land, work on a port town began in 1912, and the Eastern Line railway was laid 243 kilometres north to the mines. Lugard named the place in August 1913 after Lewis Harcourt, the colonial secretary; the local Ikwerre name for the area is Rebisi. In the First World War it served as a staging point for attacks on German Kamerun.
Oil transformed it. After crude was struck at Oloibiri in 1956, the first Nigerian shipload left Port Harcourt in 1958, and the city became the hub of the national oil economy, gaining overpasses, city blocks and taller buildings. Two refineries at Eleme together handle around 210,000 barrels a day, Shell and other oil firms keep offices here, and the industrial zone sits at Trans Amadi. The core city includes the old European quarters, now Old GRA, and the wider metropolis spills into Obio-Akpor and Eleme.
Heavy rain falls through most of the year, and only December to February count as truly dry; the harmattan is weaker here than elsewhere in West Africa. Since late 2016 residents have endured black soot coating clothes, cars and even water supplies, with a PM2.5 reading as high as 270 micrograms per cubic metre. After protests in February 2017, the environment ministry found particulate levels eleven times over WHO limits and shut down asphalt and engineering companies in Aluu.
About 3.8 million people lived in the urban area in 2025, mostly coastal Ikwerre and largely Christian, making it Nigeria's fourth-largest city after Lagos, Kano and Ibadan. A book festival running since 2008 and Noo Saro-Wiwa's travel writing highlight its literary life, while Burna Boy, Timaya, Omah Lay and Duncan Mighty grew up here.
Source: Port Harcourt
