Petrobras Starts Up Sepetiba FPSO at Mero Field Offshore Brazil

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) has put in production the last of its four new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units in 2023, at Brazil's Mero Field, as it aims to expand its production.

Petrobras closed the year with the start of the Sepetiba FPSO at the Mero oil field in the Libra Block in the Santos Basin. Sepetiba has a production capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day (BBL/d) and 12 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

Currently, the Mero oilfield produces about 230,000 BBL/d and 15 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. The field is operated by Petrobras, which has a 38.6% stake, followed by Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) (London, England) and TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France), with each holding 19.3%, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) (Beijing) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) with 9.65% each, and Pre-sal Petroleo S.A with a minority stake of 3.5%.

Sepetiba is connected to eight production wells and another eight injection wells of gas and water. Additionally, the asset contains carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology, which is used to reinject gas rich in carbon dioxide (CO2) into the reservoir to reduce emissions.

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"For Petrobras, high productivity and decarbonization go hand in hand because, when carrying out our activities, we have as a parameter sustainability in business, as well as in the environment," highlighted the president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates.

Brazil has set a strong environmental agenda under the presidency of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the protection of the Amazon and the promotion of renewable energy at heart.

This has translated into more renewable energy through the development of wind and solar infrastructure and the promotion of renewable fuels and biofuels to reduce emissions in the transport sector. For example, in December, Brazil mandated a higher percentage of biodiesel in the diesel blend with the aim of reducing emissions and imports. For more information, see December 21, 2023, article - Brazil to Increase Mandatory Biodiesel Blend to 14% in March 2024.

Yet, the move for cleaner technologies has not stopped the South American country from maintaining the solid development of hydrocarbon assets.

Between December 2022 and December 2023, Petrobras finished the installation of five FPSOs with a capacity of 630,000 BBL/d. According to the company's strategic plan, Petrobras expects to reach an output of 3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) by 2028 and 2.8 million BOE/d in 2024.

In the next four years, Petrobras plans to install 13 new production units in the Santos and Campos basins to reach a total operational production capacity of 4.6 million BOE/d.

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