After nearly three decades of inactivity, drilling has restarted at one of West Africa’s oldest offshore oil fields.
Singapore-based Akrake Petroleum is leading a major redevelopment of the Sèmè field, located off the coast of Benin.
The site, first discovered in 1969, last produced oil in 1998 before shutting down due to falling oil prices and excessive water production.
For perspective, Nigeria, one of Africa’s top oil producers, made its first major commercial oil discovery at the Oloibiri Oilfield on January 15, 1956, just 13 years before the Sèmè field was found.
That discovery ended more than 50 years of failed exploration attempts by various international oil companies and established Nigeria as a global oil producer.
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According to Offshore Energy’s report, the Sèmè field lies in Block 1, where Akrake holds a 76% stake under a production sharing contract, alongside the Government of Benin with 15% and Octogone Trading with 9%.
Akrake is a special-purpose company fully owned by Rex’s subsidiary, Lime Petroleum, and is tasked with assessing the site’s long-term development potential.
For Benin, the revival of the Sèmè offshore oil field is a significant step.
The country has been absent from Africa’s oil production map for nearly thirty years, relying entirely on imports for its petroleum needs.
The original production yielded around 22 million barrels before operations ceased in 1998.
The renewed drilling effort could pave the way for Benin’s re-entry into the ranks of West African oil producers.
While it is still too early to determine the volume of commercially recoverable reserves, the project could help reduce the country’s dependence on imported refined products, diversify government revenue, and attract downstream investments.
It could also strengthen Benin’s role in regional blocs such as ECOWAS, where energy cooperation and cross-border infrastructure are becoming increasingly important.
If successful, the phased redevelopment could restore Benin as a modest upstream player in the Gulf of Guinea and highlight the growing role of Asian energy companies in reviving West Africa’s legacy oil assets.
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Image Credit: Energy Capital & Power
