Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras has welcomed a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel owned by the Netherlands-based SBM Offshore to the county. The unit is destined to work at one of the fields in the country’s pre-salt Santos Basin.
The arrival of FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão in the country was confirmed by Petrobras’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Magda Chambriard , in a social media post from March 5, 2025. The vessel’s final destination is the Mero field , located in ultra-deep waters (2,100 meters) approximately 190 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
The FPSO started its journey from China to Brazil in December . It is set to spend 22.5 years in the country thanks to a lease and operation contract with Petrobras signed in 2021 .
The vessel has a production capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and gas compression of 12 million cubic meters per day. It will be the fifth unit working at Mero, after Pioneiro de Libra, Guanabara, Sepetiba, and Marechal Duque de Caxias . The addition of the new platform is slated to boost the field’s production capacity to 770,000 bopd.
Discovered in 2010, the unitized Mero field is governed by the Libra production sharing agreement (PSA). The Libra consortium is operated by Petrobras (38.6%), in partnership with Shell Brasil (19.3%), TotalEnergies (19.3%), CNPC (9.65%), CNOOC (9.65%), and Pré-Sal Petróleo (PPSA) (3.5%), representing the government in the non-contracted area.
“Mero is the third largest field in Brazil and, in terms of volume of oil in place and production, behind only Tupi and Búzios, also located in the Santos Basin pre-salt. Production will increase even further with the completion of the ramp-up of the FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias and the start-up of the FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão,” said Sylvia Anjos , Petrobras’ Exploration and Production Director.
The field reached the 500,000-bopd milestone on February 28, 2025, a few days after the Búzios field reached a record of 800,000 bopd.
“Since extracting its first oil, Mero’s production has been marked by technological advances, innovation and production records. The 500 thousand barrels per day mark is the result of the work of several areas and the new technologies used in our projects and our day-to-day operations,” noted Petrobras’ CEO.
The Brazilian giant says the pre-salt currently accounts for 81% of its total production, with Santos Basin credited for the increase in its proven reserves of oil, condensate, and natural gas in 2024 compared to the previous year.