TotalEnergies SE is exiting the under-development Gato do Mato area by divesting its stake to operator Shell PLC in alternate for an elevated possession within the producing Lapa area, the place it’s operator.
Beneath the swap settlement for the deepwater Brazilian fields, Shell will purchase its French rival’s 20 % curiosity in Gato do Mato, which that they had simply permitted for improvement in March. This can consequence within the British firm proudly owning 70 % of Gato do Mato. Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol SA holds 30 %.
TotalEnergies will purchase a further three % in Lapa, growing its stake to 48 % and decreasing Shell’s to 27 %. Repsol Sinopec Brazil, a three way partnership between the Spanish and Chinese language corporations, holds the remaining 25 %.
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Each fields are within the pre-salt space of the Santos Basin. Lapa, which went onstream December 2016, is predicted to develop its manufacturing to 60,000 barrels per day by the top of 2025. Gato do Mato, which reached a last funding choice (FID) in March 2025, is predicted to have a capability of 120,000 bpd; startup is deliberate for 2029.
“This transaction is aligned with our technique to concentrate on low-cost, low-emission tasks, similar to Atapu 2 and Sepia 2 in Brazil, sanctioned in 2024”, Javier Rielo, TotalEnergies senior vp for exploration and manufacturing within the Americas, mentioned in a web based assertion.
Lapa is linked to the floating manufacturing, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Cidade de Caraguatatuba, leased from MODEC underneath a 20-year contract. The Lapa South-West tie-back, permitted 2023 with an estimated funding of $1 billion, will improve the sector’s manufacturing by 25,000 bpd. The FPSO has a designed capability of 100,000 bpd for oil manufacturing and 177 million commonplace cubic ft per day for pure gasoline manufacturing, in addition to a storage capability of 1.6 million barrels, in keeping with on-line data from MODEC.
Gato do Mato is deliberate to have its personal FPSO. It’s estimated to carry about 370 million barrels of recoverable sources.
“The challenge contributes to sustaining steady liquids manufacturing in our Upstream enterprise and expands our management as the biggest overseas producer in Brazil, as we proceed to work to fulfill the world’s power wants sooner or later”, then-director for built-in gasoline and upstream at Shell Zoë Yujnovich mentioned in a press launch March 21, 2025, saying the FID.
Shell and TotalEnergies not too long ago unlocked new manufacturing in one other Brazilian area, Mero, which can be in pre-salt Santos. The brand new startup, Mero’s fourth improvement, will increase the sector’s output to as much as 770,000 bpd.
Mero-4 makes use of the brand new Alexandre de Gusmão FPSO, which has a manufacturing capability of 180,000 bpd. Mero-4 will even allow 12 million cubic meters (423.78 million cubic ft) a day of gasoline compression. The consortium permitted the challenge August 2021.
Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras operates Mero with a 38.6 % stake. Shell and TotalEnergies every personal 19.3 %. China Nationwide Petroleum Corp. and China Nationwide Offshore Oil Corp. every maintain 9.65 %. The Brazilian authorities’s Pré-Sal Petróleo SA owns the remaining 3.5 %.
In a press release Could 26, 2025, saying the Mero-4 start-up, TotalEnergies mentioned the challenge will contribute to its aim of rising manufacturing by three % between 2024 and 2030. Brazil contributed 153,000 barrels of oil equal a day to its manufacturing final 12 months. TotalEnergies says it has 11 licenses within the South American nation, 4 of that are operated.
To contact the creator, e mail jov.onsat@rigzone.com
