By Ejekwu Chidiebere
Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell Brasil), a subsidiary of Shell plc, has announced the start of production at the floating production storage and offloading facility (FPSO) Alexandre de Gusmão in the Mero field within the Santos Basin offshore Brazil.
Shell said that as part of the Mero-4 project, the FPSO, located 180 kilometres from the coast of Rio de Janeiro in a water depth of approximately 2,000 metres will be connected to 12 wells which have, in total, an operational capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil production and 12 million cubic meters of gas compression per day (Shell share 19.3%).
“Mero-4 is the latest example of how we are working with our partners to unlock value from world-class reservoirs, sustaining material liquids production and providing for the world’s current energy needs,” said Peter Costello, Shell’s Upstream President. “Our Brazil portfolio features long-life assets with high flow rates, resulting in some of our most competitive barrels on both operating cost and carbon footprint.”
The unitized Mero field Shell said, is operated by Petrobras (38.6%), in partnership with Shell Brasil (19.3%), TotalEnergies (19.3%), CNPC (9.65%), CNOOC (9.65%) and Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A (PPSA) (3.5%) representing the Government in the non-contracted area.
It is important to note that the final investment decision (FID) on Mero-4 which is also part of the Libra Production Sharing Contract (PSC), signed in December 2013 4 had earlier been announced in August 2021.
The FPSO Guanabara (Mero-1), the FPSO Sepetiba (Mero-2), and the FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias (Mero-3), came online in 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively. In total, the four FPSOs and an Early Production System (EPS) have a total installed production capacity of 770,000 barrels of oil per day, Shell said.
The Royal Dutch Oil Firm says it is the second largest oil and gas producer in Brazil, only behind Petrobras.
Mero-4 contributes to Shell’s Capital Market Day 2025 commitment to deliver upstream and integrated gas projects coming on stream between 2025 to 2030 with a total peak production of more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
The operational capacity stated above is a 100% total gross figure, Shell said.