Lime Petroleum, the Norwegian arm of Singapore-based Rex International, has signed a deal with Borr Gerd Limited—an affiliate of Borr Drilling—to use one of its modern jack-up rigs for a drilling campaign in West Africa.
The campaign will use the Borr Gerd jack-up rig for an estimated 120 days to carry out drilling operations at the Sèmè oilfield, located offshore Benin. Akrake Petroleum Benin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lime, operates the field.
Akrake currently holds around 76% working interest in the Sèmè field, while the government of Benin owns 15%, and Octogone Trading holds the remaining 9%. According to Rex, Akrake plans to submit a field development plan to Benin’s Ministry of Energy, Water and Mines and aims to restart production by the second half of 2025.
Union Oil discovered the Sèmè field in 1969, and Norway’s Saga Petroleum developed it, producing roughly 22 million barrels of oil between 1982 and 1998. Production later ceased due to low oil prices. In late 2023, Akrake signed a production-sharing contract (PSC) to take over operatorship and a working interest in the field.
According to Borr Drilling’s February 2025 fleet report, the Gerd rig began operations with Eni offshore Congo in December 2024 and will stay there until May 2025. The rig will then head to West Africa for its Benin campaign between June and September 2025.
Built in 2018, the Gerd jack-up rig features a PPL Pacific Class 400 design and supports up to 150 personnel. Constructed at PPL Shipyard PTE in Singapore, the rig can operate in water depths of up to 400 feet and drill as deep as 30,000 feet.
Crystal Offshore’s facility in Abu Dhabi completed a full round of fabrication, repairs, and upgrades on the rig between September and October 2024.
As confirmed in the August 2024 Qualified Person’s Report (QPR) and reaffirmed last month, the Sèmè field has shown promising productivity. Akrake intends to redevelop the field in phases, beginning with plans to restart production and increase recovery using horizontal wells and advanced completion technology for water control.
In Phase 1, set for mid-2025, the team will drill a vertical exploration and appraisal well to test multiple reservoirs and later use it as a vertical producer.
Next, they will drill a horizontal well targeting the previously productive H6 reservoir. Rex has also confirmed that Phase 1 will end with the drilling of two additional horizontal wells in 2026.
The development plan includes a flexible production system made up of a drilling platform, a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU), and a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit to store the produced oil.
Source:offshore-energy.biz
