New field of Brazil's Libra block ready to produce, reserves of 3.3 bln barrels

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's state-controlled oil and gas giant Petreobras said on Thursday the northwestern section of the Libra block was ready to produce commercially, and has a total recoverable volume estimated at 3.3 billion barrels of oil.

Petreobras, operator of the Libra consortium, submitted to Brazil's National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency a report on Thursday to make the section a separate field and name it Mero.

"The first oil was produced with the Pioneiro de Libra FPSO in an extended well test, aiming to know more about the new oil field and to optimize its future development," Petrobras said.

According to Petrobras, the Mero field, located in the pre-salt of the Santos Basin, around 180 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, has "high quality carbonate reservoirs with expected high well productivity."

"The Libra consortium plans to deploy four new production systems in the Mero field for oil exploitation and will continue exploring the remaining area of the Libra block," the company added.

The Libra consortium is led by Petrobras, which owns 40 percent of the shares, while Shell and Total hold 20 percent each, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China National Petroleum Corporation hold 10 percent apiece. Enditem