Petrobras Initiates Production at Mero 4

Brazil's biggest oil company, Petrobras, just started getting oil and gas from a new floating platform called Alexandre de Gusmão. This marks the fourth part of the Mero oil field project.

The oil field sits deep underwater, about 110 miles from Rio de Janeiro's coast. The water there is more than a mile deep.

The floating platform is huge - one of the biggest in the world. It was built in China last December and arrived at the oil field in March. A company called SBM Offshore owns most of it and will run it for Petrobras for over 22 years.

The platform connects to 12 underwater wells through long pipes. It can produce 180,000 barrels of oil every day and handle lots of natural gas too. The company designed it to be cleaner for the environment by putting gas back underground instead of burning it.

This is the fourth floating platform at Mero field. The other three started working in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Together, all four platforms can produce 770,000 barrels of oil per day.

Several oil companies work together at Mero field. Petrobras runs the operation, but other companies from France, Netherlands, and China also own parts of it.