Petrobras and its partners in the Libra Consortium have made a positive final investment decision (FID) on the second phase of the Mero oil project (Libra block), in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin in Brazil. The Consortium has signed an agreement with the SBM Group to charter and operate a second Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform that will link up to 16 wells and process up to 180,000 bbl/d of oil and 12 mcm/d of gas. Production could start as soon as 2022.
The Mero field is estimated to hold 3 to 4 Gbl. Partners are already producing hydrocarbons, thanks to the 50,000 bbl/d FPSO Pioneiro de Libra, dedicated to early production systems since November 2017. The 180,000 bbl/d FPSO Guanabara will replace it for the definitive production system and is expected to start production in 2021. Two further 180,000 bbl/d FPSOs could be added in a third and a fourth phases.
The Libra Consortium is operated by Petrobras (40%), in partnership with Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%).