Libra Consortium announces first oil at third FPSO in Brazil pre-salt

Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell Brasil), a subsidiary of Shell plc, has announced the commencement of production at the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility Marechal Duque de Caxias, located in the Mero field within the pre-salt area of Brazil's Santos Basin. Known as Mero-3, this FPSO facility has an operational capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day, with Shell holding a 19.3% share.

“Mero-3 demonstrates our commitment to increasingly efficient and competitive projects,” said Zoë Yujnovich, Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director. “Brazil is a material contributor to Shell’s deep-water oil and gas production, and through our ongoing partnership with Petrobras in the Mero field, we can help continue to deliver safe and secure energy from one of the country’s most productive fields.”

The FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias is positioned 200 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at a water depth of 2,200 meters. Its predecessor, the FPSO Sepetiba (Mero-2), began production in December 2023, while the FPSO Guanabara (Mero-1) commenced operations in May 2022.