Benin’s Sèmè Oilfield Set for Production Restart After Four Decades
Akrake Petroleum Benin is on the verge of reviving oil production at the Sèmè field offshore Benin by the end of this month, marking the return of crude output to the West African nation after nearly three decades of dormancy.
The company, an indirect subsidiary of Singapore-based Rex International Holding through its wholly-owned unit Lime Petroleum Holding, is completing drilling operations on the AK-2H horizontal production well in the reservoir section, with production expected to commence by late January 2026.
Located in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Guinea, offshore southeastern Benin near the maritime border with Nigeria, the Sèmè field was originally discovered by Union Oil in 1969 within Block 1, which covers 551 square kilometers in water depths ranging from 20 to 30 meters. The field was first developed by Norway’s Saga Petroleum and produced approximately 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998 before operations ceased due to depressed oil prices in the late 1990s.
The current redevelopment campaign has faced significant technical challenges. Drilling operations in the geomechanically unstable shale layers in the overburden above the reservoir proved more difficult than anticipated, resulting in substantial delays due to several stuck pipe incidents that necessitated redrilling of the overburden section. However, the drilling team utilized new geomechanical data obtained from current operations to optimize drilling parameters and successfully penetrated the challenging overburden in the AK-2H production well.
The drilling campaign comprised an exploration well, AK-1P, designed to gather additional information about deeper, previously unproduced hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs H7 and H8 within the Sèmè field, alongside two horizontal production wells, AK-1H and AK-2H, targeting the H6 reservoir unit.
Production facilities are now in place and ready for startup. The mobile offshore production unit Stella Energy 1 and the floating storage and offloading vessel Kristina, contracted in April 2025, have been upgraded and positioned on location. These assets will handle initial production from the field as Benin seeks to revive its offshore oil sector.
Once AK-2H begins producing, drilling operations on the remaining wells will be suspended as the contract for Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up rig concludes. Akrake plans to secure a new drilling rig later in 2026 to complete additional wells and evaluate further production opportunities based on early output data from the initial phase.
The project represents a significant milestone for Benin’s energy sector and demonstrates renewed investor confidence in the country’s offshore oil potential after decades of inactivity.
Sources: worldoil.com, offshore-energy.biz
