Benin’s Sèmè Field Set to Resume Production After Nearly 30-Year Hiatus
Akrake Petroleum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lime Petroleum Holding, is in the final stages of bringing back online the Sèmè oil field off the coast of Benin, which ceased production due to low oil prices in the late 1990s. The operator expects the production well AK-2H to be ready for production during the first week of February 2026.
Following the start of drilling operations with Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up drilling rig in August 2025, Akrake Petroleum ran into technical issues that delayed the production start-up, which was previously slated for the fourth quarter of 2025. The company has now confirmed it is finishing drilling operations at the production well in the reservoir section.
Designed to drain the western section of the Sèmè field from the H6 reservoir, the well is expected to be completed and made ready for production over the next several days. The activities encompass running screens in the well across the reservoir sandstone formation and installing a down-hole electrical submersible pump. Concurrent to the well completion, the mobile offshore production unit Stella Energy 1 and the floating storage and offloading unit Kristina are in the final stages of installation.
After the initial discovery by Union Oil in 1969, the Sèmè field was first developed by Norway’s Saga Petroleum. Production was stopped in the late 1990s due to unfavorable oil prices. The field within Block 1, which covers 551 square kilometers in shallow water ranging from 20 to 30 meters, produced around 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998.
Source: offshore-energy.biz, energy-pedia.com
