Akrake Petroleum Nears Restart of Sèmè Oil Field Offshore Benin

Akrake Petroleum is nearing completion of the hook-up of a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) and a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit at the Sèmè oil field offshore Benin, as efforts advance to bring the long-dormant field back into production.

Akrake Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lime Petroleum, is working to restart output from the field, which has been offline since the late 1990s.

The company confirmed the completion of the AK-2H production well. The first of three planned wells and final hook-up activities involving the MOPU Stella Energy 1 and the FSO Kristina are progressing. Drilling began in August 2025 using Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up rig.

Production start-up had been delayed due to technical challenges, pushing the timeline beyond an earlier target of the fourth quarter of 2025. The operator now expects the well to be ready for production in the first week of February, with an electrical submersible pump (ESP) being installed.

Akrake said drilling encountered oil-bearing reservoir sandstone with strong reservoir quality, reporting average porosity of over 19% and oil saturation exceeding 70%, with no water-bearing sand encountered. The well has been completed with screens fitted with autonomous inflow control valves (AICVs) to reduce water production and optimize oil output.

The Sèmè field produced about 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998 before production ceased in the late 1990s following a prolonged period of low oil prices.