A final investment decision (FID) has been made by the Libra Consortium to contract the Mero-3 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is to be deployed at the Mero field.
The Mero field is owned by the Libra consortium, which is operated by Petrobras (40%) and includes Shell Brasil Petróleo (20%), Total E&P do Brasil (20%), CNODC Brasil Petróleo e Gás (10%) and CNOOC Petroleum Brasil (10%).
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The field is an ultra-deepwater oilfield situated approximately 180km offshore Rio de Janeiro in the Libra block, Brazil.
It is located in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin.
Mero-3 is the third production system to be deployed at the Mero field.
Final investment decisions for Mero 1 (start-up expected next year) and Mero 2 (start-up expected in 2023) FPSOs are already taken.
The Mero-3 FPSO is expected to commence operation in the first half of 2024.
Each FPSO will have a capacity to process up to 180,000bpd of oil.
Royal Dutch Shell Upstream Director Wael Sawan said: “Mero-3 is the latest addition to our world-class asset portfolio in the Brazilian pre-salt.
“Shell is the largest foreign producer in Brazil and we are proud to progress another valuable growth opportunity in the country to support the long-term strategy of our Upstream business.”
Petrobras recently signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Malaysian contractor MISC Berhad for the charter of an FPSO vessel to be deployed at the Mero field. Petrobras noted that the term of the charter is 22.5 years from the date of Petrobras’ final acceptance of the Mero 3 FPSO unit.
