Akrake Petroleum, Rex International's indirect subsidiary, has completed the development plan for the Seme field offshore Benin, with the drilling operations scheduled to begin in early July 2025 using Borr Drilling’s jack-up rig.
Akrake holds a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the government of Benin for the offshore Block 1 exploration license, which also includes the Sèmè Field.
As art of the work-program for Block 1 under the PSA, Akrake is working on the redevelopment of the Sèmè Field.
This is a phased development, the first of which will be to bring the field into production, while gathering more data on the subsurface, in order to optimize further development of the field, including heretofore untapped deeper reservoir sections.
To this end, the reprocessing of 2007 3D seismic data has been completed, and a detailed field development plan has been finalised.
Offshore operations have started, with an ongoing site-survey over the intended drilling and production location.
In April 2025, Rex's Lime Petroleum, which owns Akrake Petroleum, signed a contract for Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up rig, to be used for an anticipated 120-day drilling campaign in Benin.
The rig is scheduled to arrive in Benin later in June 2025, with drilling to begin in early July 2025.
Over the ensuing 100 days, three well-bores will be drilled. The first will be an appraisal well designed to gather new data on deeper reservoir units.
Following this, two horizontal production wells will be drilled and completed in the H6 reservoir, in which subsurface analysis has suggested significant remaining reserves, even though there has been previous production.
Drilling is expected to be completed in early October 2025, at which time a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) will arrive, along with a Floating Storage and Offloading unit (FSO).
The MOPU will be hooked to the newly-drilled wells, and production is expected to start in October 2025 at production rates of approximately 16,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
Contracts have been signed for both the MOPU and FSO, and the MOPU is currently in a yard in Dubai for refurbishment, before heading to Benin in the middle of September 2025.
Akrake is the operator of the Sèmè Field in Benin, and holds approximately 76% working interest, with the remainder of the working interest held by the government of Benin (15%) and Octogone Trading (9%).