Borr Drilling’s rig takes on 120-day oilfield revival job in West Africa

Lime Petroleum, a Norwegian subsidiary of Singapore’s Rex International, has signed a contract with Borr Gerd Limited, an affiliate of Borr Drilling, for a modern-built jack-up rig from its fleet to be used for a drilling campaign in West Africa.

As disclosed, the Borr Gerd jackup will be used for an anticipated 120-day drilling campaign at the Sèmè oilfield offshore Benin. The field’s operator is Akrake Petroleum Benin, Lime’s wholly-owned subsidiary.

In addition to Akrake, which holds an approximately 76% working interest in the Sèmè field, the government of Benin holds a 15%, and Octogone Trading 9% interest in the field. As disclosed by Rex, Akrake aims to submit a field development plan for Sèmè to Benin’s Ministry of Energy, Water and Mines, and restart production in the field in the second half of 2025. 

Discovered by Union Oil in 1969, the Sèmè field was first developed by Norway’s Saga Petroleum, producing approximately 22 MMbbl between 1982 and 1998, before production was stopped due to low oil prices in the late 1990s. Akrake Petroleum signed a production-sharing contract (PSC) for operatorship and a working interest in the field in late 2023.

Based on Borr Drilling’s fleet status report from February 2025, the rig started work with Eni offshore Congo in early December 2024, where it is set to stay until May 2025. The new assignment is expected to take it to West Africa from June 2025 to September 2025.

The 2018-built Gerd jack-up rig is of PPL Pacific Class 400 design and can accommodate 150 people. Constructed at PPL Shipyard PTE in Singapore, the rig is capable of operating in water depths of up to 400 feet, and its maximum drilling depth is 30,000 feet.

The rig underwent a comprehensive range of fabrication, repair, and upgrade scopes at Crystal Offshore’s Abu Dhabi facility from September to October 2024.

As stated in the qualified person’s report (QPR) from August 2024 and confirmed last month, the field has demonstrated good productivity. The plan is to initially redevelop it using a phased approach, aiming to restart production and maximize oil recovery through the use of horizontal wells and modern completion technology for effective water control.

Phase 1 in mid-2025 includes drilling one vertical exploration and appraisal well to test several reservoirs, which will then be used as a vertical producer.

After that, a second, horizontal well will be drilled to exploit the previously produced H6 reservoir. As stated by Rex, Phase 1 will be concluded by drilling two horizontal wells in 2026. The production system to be used is a highly flexible system comprising a drilling platform, a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU), and a floating storage and offtake unit (FSO) for storage.