The Marechal Duque De Caxias floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) has departed China for its deployment site in the Mero field in the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil.
The FPSO Marechal Duque De Caxias departed China on February 24, 2024, according to Malaysia's MISC Berhad, which secured the charter and services contract with Petrobras for the FPSO in 2020.
“As MISC Group’s pioneering ultra-deepwater asset, it stands out as one of the largest of its kind, tailor-made to thrive in Brazil’s challenging deepwater environment,” said MISC Berhad on social media.
Built for water depths of approximately 2,070 meters, the FPSO Marechal Duque De Caxias has the capacity to produce 28,600 Sm³/d of oil and 12 million Sm³/d of gas per day.
The FPSO is designed for an operational lifetime of 30 years without the need for dry docking, according to MISC Berhad.
It will be installed in Mero 3, belonging to the Libra Block, as part of the development of the southern portion of the block.
The Mero field will have five FPSOs. The FPSO Guanabara has been installed and producing since 2022. The Mero field houses not only the FPSO Guanabara, but also the FPSO Pioneiro de Libra, which operates the Early Production System (SPA 2), and is producing 50 thousand bpd.
The FPSO Sepetiba started production at the end of 2023.
The FPSO Marechal Duque De Caxias will be installed in 2024, with the final Mero 4 (PSO Alexandre de Gusmão) scheduled to begin production in 2025.
Mero is the third largest field in Brazil in terms of existing oil volume – the largest being Tupi and Búzios, also located in the pre-salt of the Santos Basin.
The operations of the Mero unitized field are conducted by the consortium operated by Petrobras (38.6%), in partnership with Shell Brasil Petróleo (19.3%), TotalEnergies EP Brasil (19.3%), CNODC Brasil Petróleo e Gás ( 9.65%), CNOOC Petroleum Brasil (9.65%) and Pré-Sal Petróleo S. (PPSA) (3.5%) as representatives of the Brazilian Government.
