Formerly a fishing village of the Ijo (Ijaw) people in the mangrove swamps of the eastern Niger River delta, Okrika became the capital of the Okrika kingdom in the early 17th century and actively dealt in slaves. It served as a port for the exportation of palm oil after the abolition of the slave trade in the 1830s, but it was a less significant port facility than either Bonny (18 miles south) or Opobo (32 miles [81 km east-southeast). By 1912, Okrika had been completely eclipsed by Port Harcourt, and it was not revived as a commercial port until 1965, when the nearby Port Harcourt refinery was completed and pipelines were built to a jetty on Okrika Mainland. It also has a major gas plant facility (Alakiri gas plant) that supplies to the refinery and others.