The floating production, storage and offloading vessel Alexandre de Gusmão has hit its maximum designed production capacity at the Mero field in the pre-salt Santos Basin, reaching 180,000 barrels of oil per day, Petrobras announced on August 20, 2026.

The milestone marks a significant operational achievement for what is the fifth FPSO to be installed at Mero, Brazil's third-largest producing field after Búzios and Tupi.

Peak Production at Brazil's Third-Largest Field

The FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão was chartered from SBM Offshore and is designed to ultimately connect to 12 wells, comprising six oil producers and six water or gas injectors operating alternately.

As of the announcement, five oil producer wells and three injector wells had been connected to the vessel, with the remaining connections still to be made.

The achievement adds to an already substantial production base at Mero. According to Petrobras Director of Exploration and Production Sylvia Anjos, the Mero asset recorded an average production of approximately 740,000 barrels of oil per day during the second quarter of 2026, a figure that did not yet include the contribution from the Alexandre de Gusmão reaching its plateau.

"The plateau of this unit shows that we continue on a firm trajectory of increasing the operational efficiency of our assets," Anjos said in the company's statement.

Technical and Engineering Significance

Petrobras Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation Renata Baruzzi emphasized the broader significance of the vessel reaching its designed maximum output.

"Each unit that reaches the maximum production level planned in the project, in addition to contributing to the company's results, confirms the overcoming of great technical challenges and the correctness of the strategies we have adopted," she said.

The FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão joins four other platforms already operating at Mero: the FPSOs Pioneiro de Libra, Guanabara, Sepetiba, and Marechal Duque de Caxias. Together, these five units make Mero one of the most intensively developed offshore fields in Brazil's pre-salt province.

Advanced Monitoring and Separation Technologies Deployed at Mero

The Mero field is home to what Petrobras describes as the world's largest seismic monitoring project, known as the Permanent Reservoir Monitoring system, or PRM.

The infrastructure consists of an extensive subsea network of sensors and optical instruments designed to improve production management and maximize oil recovery from the reservoirs.

Mero is also set to receive HISEP, or High Pressure Separation, a technology patented by Petrobras that is currently undergoing qualification.

The system enables subsea separation of extracted oil from associated gas that is rich in carbon dioxide, with that CO₂ then being reinjected directly into the reservoir. Petrobras has positioned both technologies as central to the long-term performance and environmental management of the field.

Consortium Structure and Operational Governance

Operations at the unitized Mero field are conducted under a consortium led by Petrobras, which serves as operator. Partners in the field include Shell Brasil, TotalEnergies, CNPC, and CNOOC.

Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A., known as PPSA, participates as manager of the production-sharing contract and as representative of the Brazilian federal government, reflecting the regulatory framework that governs Brazil's pre-salt resources.

The production-sharing model under which Mero operates is standard for Brazil's pre-salt polygon, with PPSA's involvement ensuring that the government retains a direct stake in the commercial and contractual arrangements governing output from the field.

Mero's Position Within Petrobras's Portfolio

Mero's standing as Brazil's third-largest producing field places it behind only Búzios and Tupi in terms of national output significance. With the Alexandre de Gusmão now at plateau and the broader Mero asset averaging around 740,000 barrels per day before that milestone was reached, the field represents a cornerstone of Petrobras's pre-salt production strategy in the Santos Basin.

The pre-salt Santos Basin has been a focal point of Brazilian oil development for more than a decade, with multiple ultra-deepwater fields brought into production beneath a thick layer of salt that lies kilometers below the ocean floor.

The technical complexity of operating in such conditions, including the management of CO₂-rich associated gas, has driven Petrobras to develop proprietary technologies such as HISEP specifically for these reservoirs.