Rex reported that Akrake Petroleum drilled the first well in the Sèmè field in Block 1, off Benin’s coast, on August 4 using the Borr Gerd jack-up rig. The company is carrying out this drilling as part of a 100-day, three-well program to redevelop the field in phases.
In April, Rex chose the 2018-built Gerd jack-up rig—designed to PPL Pacific Class 400 specifications—for the work. The rig can operate in waters up to 400 feet deep and drill to a maximum depth of 30,000 feet.
The program involves drilling two horizontal production wells in the previously developed H6 formation and one deeper vertical appraisal well to collect data from the H7 and H8 reservoirs. The Singapore-based company believes this data could help move the project into Phase 2 of development.
Steve Moore, Rex’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Akrake Petroleum’s General Manager, expressed excitement about restarting oil production in the Sèmè field and in Benin after decades. He thanked the Benin authorities and local partner Octogone E&P S.A. for their strong support, which he said has helped speed up the path to first oil.
Rex plans to complete the drilling campaign by Q4 2025, when the contracted refurbished mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) and floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) will arrive on-site.
Once installed, the MOPU will connect to the new wells, enabling production to start in Q4 2025 at an initial rate of about 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
Alongside the restart of production after nearly 30 years, the company will collect new subsurface data. It will analyze this data with reprocessed 3D seismic results from 2007 to refine the field’s development plan and possibly access deeper reservoir sections.
An updated independent qualified person’s report (QPR) estimates that the H6 reservoir contains 11.4 million stock tank barrels of oil (MMstb) in low 1P reserves, 10.9 MMstb in base 2P reserves, and 13.6 MMstb in high 3P reserves.
Block 1 spans 551 square kilometers in shallow water 20–30 meters deep. Union Oil discovered the Sèmè field in 1969, and Saga Petroleum later developed it. The field produced roughly 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998 before shutting down due to low prices and high water content in the oil.
Under the production sharing contract for Block 1, Akrake Petroleum—Rex’s affiliate—holds a 76% stake, the government of Benin holds 15%, and Octogone Trading holds 9%.
Rex created Akrake Petroleum as a special-purpose vehicle to evaluate the field’s redevelopment. Akrake is wholly owned by Lime Petroleum, which is 80.14% owned by Rex.
source: www.offshore-energy.biz
African Energy Council