Norwegian oil company Rex International Holding is set to initiate offshore drilling operations in the Republic of Benin in July 2025, marking a significant step in the redevelopment of the historic Sèmè oilfield.
The drilling will be conducted by Akrake Petroleum (an indirect subsidiary of Rex) which holds a 76% working interest in Block 1 under a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the Beninese government.
In a press release today, Rex gave an update on its development plans across various assets in core regions such as Norway, Germany and Benin.
The company says drilling will start in Benin in July, with production expected by the fourth quarter of 2025.
“As part of the work-programme for Block 1 under the PSA, Akrake is working on the redevelopment of the Semè 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 optimise further development on the field, including heretofore untapped deeper reservoir sections,” the statement reads.
The Sèmè field, located in shallow waters off Benin’s coast, was originally discovered in 1969 and produced approximately 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998 before being shut down due to low oil prices.
Rex aims to rejuvenate the field through a phased development approach.
It says the “reprocessing of a 2007 seismic data has been completed and a detailed field development plan has been finalised”.
Over the next 100 days, Rex says three well-bores will be drilled.
The first involves drilling an appraisal well to gather data on deeper reservoir units, followed by two horizontal production wells.
To facilitate these operations, Rex has contracted Borr Drilling’s Gerd jack-up rig for a 120-day drilling campaign.
The rig is scheduled to arrive in Benin in late June, with drilling activities commencing in early July.
Concurrently, a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) is undergoing refurbishment in Dubai and is expected to be deployed to Benin by mid-September.
The MOPU, along with a Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) unit, will be integral to the production process, which is anticipated to begin in October 2025 with an estimated output of 16,000 barrels of oil per day.
Outside Rex, the remaining interests in Block 1 are held by the government of Benin (15%) and Octogone Trading (9%).
Depending on analysis of new subsurface data from phase 1, Akrake could advance to phase 2 to develop deeper reservoirs.
“The [redevelopment] project is moving ahead in accordance with budget and time-schedule,” the statement said.
Nearby in the Gulf of Guinea, Addax has recently announced a $34.4 million contract with Saudi ADES Holding to also start drilling off the coast of Cameroon.
