Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell Brasil), a subsidiary of Shell plc, announced on Thursday the start of production of the floating production storage and offloading facility (FPSO) Marechal Duque de Caxias in the Mero field, in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. Also known as Mero-3, the FPSO has an operational capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day.
“Mero-3 demonstrates our commitment to increasingly efficient and competitive projects,” said Zoë Yujnovich, Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director. “Brazil is a material contributor to Shell’s deep-water oil and gas production, and through our ongoing partnership with Petrobras in the Mero field, we can help continue to deliver safe and secure energy from one of the country’s most productive fields.”
The Mero field is part of the Libra Production Sharing Contract (PSC), signed in December 2013. Shell, which holds a 19.3% stake, announced its Final Investment Decision on Mero-3 in August 2020.
The three FPSOs now online, along with the Early Production System (EPS), represent a total installed production capacity of 590,000 boe/d.
SBM Offshore MISC is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, mobilisation, installation, and operation of FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias, including providing topside processing equipment as well as hull and marine systems.
Another SBM Offshore built FPSO – Sepetiba – began oil production at the Mero filed at the close of 2023.
FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias is located 200 kilometres from the coast of Rio de Janeiro in a water depth of 2,200 metres. Its predecessor, the FPSO Sepetiba (Mero-2), announced first production in December 2023. The FPSO Guanabara (Mero-1) started production in May 2022.