By Christie U. Omonigho
From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil comes this report that Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell Brasil), a subsidiary of Shell plc, has taken the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Gato do Mato, a deep-water project in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.
The Gato do Mato Consortium according to an email statement from Royal Dutch Shell to Energy Window International includes Shell as operator with a 50% stake, Ecopetrol (30%), TotalEnergies (20%) and the Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA) who’s acting as the manager of the production sharing contract (PSC). The development plan as was gathered will include the installation of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel which is also designed to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day. Current estimated recoverable resource volumes of the Gato do Mato development are approximately 370 million barrels.
“Gato do Mato is an example of our ongoing investment in increasingly efficient projects,” says Zoë Yujnovich, Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director. “The project contributes to maintaining stable liquids production from our advantaged Upstream business, and expands our leadership as the largest foreign producer in Brazil as we continue working to provide for the world’s energy needs well into the future.”
There’s anticipation that the Gato do Mato field will commence operations in 2029.
Located in the Santos Basin, the Gato do Mato project is a pre-salt gas-condensate discovery covering two contiguous blocks: BM-S-54, is a concession contract entered into in 2005, and Sul de Gato do Mato, is a production sharing agreement obtained in 2017.
Initial operations as Energy Window International has gathered will involve the reinjection of natural gas for reservoir pressure support, with future optionality to export gas to onshore facilities.
The blocks are offshore Brazil from the Rio de Janeiro coast, in water depths ranging from 1,750 to 2,050 metres.
Resource volumes are 100% total gross and a P50 estimate under the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Petroleum Resources Classification System. According to Shell, P50 means that there is a 50% probability of the estimate being lower and a 50% probability of being higher.
The investment in Gato do Mato is expected to generate an internal rate of return (IRR) in excess of the hurdle rate for Shell’s Upstream business, Shell said.