State-owned Brazilian multinational corporation Petrobras announced on Sunday that oil production got underway at the Sepetiba platform, in the Mero field, Libra block, in the pre-salt of the Santos Basin.
The company said this is Mero’s third production system, with the capacity to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil and compress up to 12 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is part of a production system that includes the drilling and preparation of the well for the production (completion) of eight producing wells and eight water and gas injection wells that are being interconnected to the unit.
The FPSO, built by SBM Offshore, has innovative technologies to increase production efficiency and, in addition, enable the CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) activity, where CO2-rich gas is reinjected into the reservoir and reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
“For Petrobras, high productivity and decarbonization go hand in hand because, when carrying out our activities, we have sustainability in the business, as well as in the environment, as a parameter,” explained Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates.
Within a year, between December 2022 and December 2023, Petrobras has placed five FPSOs into production.
Mero produces about 230,000 barrels of oil and 15 million m3 of gas daily. It is a unitized field, 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%), as the Union’s representative in the non-contracted area.
“We overcame the challenge of putting five units into operation this year alone. This demonstrates Petrobras’ technical capacity, our intention to invest in the growth of production and, consequently, in the development of Brazil,” said Petrobras’ Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation, Carlos José Travassos.
