African field days away from flipping oil production switch on almost 30 years after shutdown

January 26, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Akrake Petroleum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lime Petroleum Holding, which is an 89.74% subsidiary of Singapore’s Rex International Holding, has updated its timeline for bringing back online an oil field off the coast of Benin that ceased production due to low oil prices in the late 1990s.

A jackup rig being transported on a vessel — Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up rig; Source: Crystal Offshore Middle East

Following the start of drilling operations at the first of three wells on the Sèmè field with Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up drilling rig in August 2025 to bring the development project back to life, Akrake Petroleum ran into technical issues, which delayed the production start-up, previously slated for 4Q 2025.

As a result, the operator expected the field in Block 1 to be put into production mode once again at the end of January 2026, upon the completion of the drilling of the production well AK-2H in the reservoir section.

While confirming that it is finishing drilling operations at the production well, the firm has now revealed its new timeline for the start-up, expecting the well to be ready for production during the first week of February 2026.

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 are perceived to encompass running screens in the well across the reservoir sandstone formation and installing a down-hole electrical submersible pump (ESP).

The operator claims that the mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) Stella Energy 1 and the floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) 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. The production was stopped in the late 1990s.

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.