TotalEnergies and its partners have taken the investment decision for the fourth phase of the Mero project (Libra block), located deep offshore, 180 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the prolific pre-salt area of the Santos Basin.

The Mero 4 Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit will have a liquid treatment capacity of 180,000 barrels per day and is expected to start up by 2025. It follows investment decisions for Mero 1 (startup expected in 2022), Mero 2 (startup expected in 2023) and Mero 3 (startup expected in 2024) FPSOs. All of them have a liquid processing capacity of 180,000 barrels per day.

“The decision to launch Mero 4 marks the last milestone in the large-scale development of the Mero oil resources. This giant project is in line with TotalEnergies’ growth strategy in Brazil which is to produce oil at a competitive cost out of world class fields while limiting CO₂ emissions to a strict minimum”, said Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies.

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%) as part of an international partnership including TotalEnergies (20%), Shell Brasil (20%), CNOOC Limited (10%) and CNPC (10%). Pre-Sal Petróleo (PPSA) manages the Libra Production Sharing Contract.