The Marechal Duque de Caxias platform ship has started producing oil and gas this Wednesday, 10/30, in the Mero field, Libra block, in the Santos Basin’s pre-salt layer. The unit can produce up to 180 thousand barrels of oil and compress up to 12 million cubic meters of gas daily. The platform ship will boost Mero’s installed capacity of producing 410 thousand to 590 thousand barrels of oil daily, according to Petrobras's release.
This FPSO (floating production, storage, and offloading) unit is part of Mero’s fourth production system chartered from MISC. There will be 15 wells in total: 8 oil production and seven water and gas injection wells interconnected with the platform through an undersea infrastructure. The FPSO Pioneiro de Libra and two definitive systems, FPSO Guanabara (Mero 1) and FPSO Sepetiba (Mero 2), are already operating in the field.
The platform will employ innovative technologies to increase production, such as HISEP®, which will become operational in 2028. This equipment will separate oil and gas at the bottom of the ocean, reinjecting the Co2-rich gas into the reservoir. Hence, it will free up the gas processing plant on the surface and reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Mero’s unused field operations will be conducted by the parties to the consortium under the Libra Production Sharing Contract - operated by Petrobras (38.6%) in partnership with Shell Brasil (19.3%), TotalEnergies (19.3%), CNOOC (9.65%), CNPC (9,65%), and Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A (PPSA), which manages the contract and represents the Union in the non-contracted area (3.5%).
