Nigeria's SAPETRO makes big oil finds in Benin

Nigeria's South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO) has discovered 87 million barrels of oil in Benin's onshore Block 1, Daisy Danjuma, the firm's vice president, said on Thursday.
Barthelemy Kassa, Benin's minister for mines and energy, said talks had started with the aim of starting production from the block by July next year.
Benin, a neighbour to the west of oil-giant Nigeria, started producing oil in the 1970s but output remained low and stopped by the end of the 1990s. Its economy now depends heavily on cotton.
SAPETRO has discovered a further 110 million barrels of oil in the Seme offshore block but production would take longer to begin, Kassa said.
SAPETRO owns oil fields in Nigeria in joint ventures with France's Total and China's CNOOC.
The company also bid last month for Chevron's  stake in three blocks in the Niger Delta, according to sources involved in the sales. The chairman of SAPETRO is General T.Y. Danjuma, a former minister of defence and chief of army staff.
London-listed Tullow Oil is also exploring for oil in Benin, where it has four blocks.