The French oil company Total has taken the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the first large-scale development phase of the ultra-deep giant offshore Libra field, located approximately 180 km offshore Rio de Janeiro, in the pre-salt Santos Basin (Brazil). This phase will include a 150,000 bbl/d floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit and 17 wells, which will be deployed in the northwestern part of the area.
The first oil started to flow in November 2017 with the commissioning of the 50,000 bbl/d Pioneiro de Libra FPSO. The next FPSO coming onstream is the Mero-1 which will be ready for 2021. Three other FPSOs will be added later on to raise the production level to 600,000 bbl/d.
The asset has recoverable resources of 12 Gbl of oil and is one of the largest offshore oil fields in the world. A consortium of Petrobras (40%, operator), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNOOC (10%) and CNPC (10%) signed a 35-year Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for the field in 2013 and started first drilling in 2014. Capital and operating costs in the area are expected at around US$20/bbl.