Brazilian oil company Petrobras, the operator of the Libra consortium, has made the investment decision for the third phase of the Mero project, located deep offshore, 180 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the prolific pre-salt area of the Santos Basin.

The Mero field has been in pre-production since 2017 with the 50,000-barrel-per-day Pioneiro de Libra FPSO. The Libra Consortium is operated by Petrobras (40%), with partners being Total (20%), Shell Brasil (20%), CNOOC Limited (10%) and CNPC (10%).

The Mero 3 project will include an FPSO with a liquid treatment capacity of 180,000 barrels per day. The FPSO is expected to start production by 2024.

The project sanction follows investment decisions for Mero 1 (startup expected in 2021) and Mero 2 (startup expected in 2023) FPSOs, both of which have a liquid processing capacity of 180,000 barrels per day.  

 Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production at Total: "The decision to launch Mero 3 marks a new milestone in the large-scale development of the vast oil resources of the Mero field – estimated at 3 to 4 billion barrels. It is in line with Total's growth strategy in Brazil’s deep-offshore, based on giant projects enabling production at competitive cost, resilient in the face of oil price volatility.”

"The Mero project will contribute to the Group’s production from 2020 onwards, and we are targeting a production of 150,000 barrels per day in Brazil by 2025. ”

Petrobras on Friday, August 14, said it had signed a letter of intent with Malaysia's MISC for the chartering and services of an FPSO to be deployed at the Mero 3 project.