FPSO sets sail to Petrobras’ Mero field offshore Brazil to increase oil and gas production
(WO) – The platform ship Marechal Duque de Caxias left Yantai, China, on Feb. 24, heading for the Mero field, operated by Petrobras, in the pre-salt Santos basin. The platform will start operating in September of this year and has the capacity to produce up to 180,000 bpd and compress up to 12 MMcmgd.
The unit, chartered by Petrobras from MISC, will be part of Mero’s 3rd definitive production system and will increase the field’s installed production capacity to 590,000 bpd. This production system includes the interconnection of 15 wells to the unit, eight oil producers, and seven water and gas injectors. The system uses underwater infrastructure consisting of 80 km of rigid production and injection pipelines, 47 km of flexible service pipelines and 44 km of control umbilicals.
The FPSO (floating production, storage, and offloading unit) platform will be interconnected to the HISEP equipment, which will separate the oil and gas at the bottom of the ocean, from where it will reinject the CO2-rich gas in a pioneering way.
HISEP, a technology patented by Petrobras, can potentially increase production and relieve the surface gas processing plant while reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions. The FPSO has other technologies for reducing emissions, such as CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage), where CO2-rich gas is reinjected into the reservoir.
“Our focus is on producing responsibly and, in this sense, we have adopted technologies to increase production efficiency; in addition, we are constantly concerned with decarbonization in our activities, with cleaner production, intending to continue on our path of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Petrobras’ Director of Exploration and Production, Joelson Mendes.
Mero is the third largest field in Brazil in terms of volume of oil in place (what can be recovered in the reservoir), behind only Tupi and Búzios, also located in the pre-salt Santos basin. In addition to the Duque de Caixas FPSO, Petrobras will put another unit into operation in Mero in 2025.
“We are continuing with the Mero project, mainly to guarantee the country’s energy security since the potential of this field is very large and makes it one of Petrobras’ main assets, in which we will invest the efforts of our extremely qualified technicians,” summarized Petrobras’ Director of Engineering, Technology, and Innovation, Carlos José Travassos.
The operations of the Mero unitized field are conducted by the Consortium operated by Petrobras (38.6%), in partnership with Shell Brasil (19.3%), TotalEnergies (19.3%), CNOOC (9.65%), CNPC (9.65%) and Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A (PPSA) (3.5%), as the Union’s representative in the non-contracted area.
