Petrobras and Shell Raise Stakes in Brazil’s Atapu and Mero Pre-Salt Fields
December 5, 2025
Petrobras and Shell have increased their participation in Brazil’s Atapu and Mero pre-salt reservoirs after securing additional equity in an auction held by Pré-Sal Petróleo (PPSA).
The consortium formed by Petrobras (80%), in partnership with Shell Brasil Petróleo (20%), acquired 3.500% participation in the production sharing agreement of the Mero shared reservoir, offering a final amount of $1.47 billion.
With this acquisition, Petrobras has increased its participation in the Mero shared reservoir from 38.60% to 41.40%.
Additionally, also in partnership with Shell (26.76%), Petrobras (73.24%) acquired 0.950% participation in the production sharing agreement of the Atapu shared reservoir, offering a final amount of $189 million. With this acquisition, Petrobras has boosted its share in the Atapu shared reservoir from 65.687% to 66.38%.
Shell Brasil increased its participating interest in the units from 16.663% to 16.917% in Atapu and from 19.3% to 20% in Mero.
Petrobras’ participation in the PPSA Non-Contracted Areas Auction is aligned with the company’s long-term strategy, reaffirmed in the Business Plan 2026-30, which foresees the replacement of its oil and gas reserves with economic and environmental resilience.
“Today’s winning bid reinforces our disciplined approach to grow Shell’s high margin portfolio in Brazil. Our assets in Brazil are among the most competitive in our global portfolio, combining strong performance with a low carbon footprint,” said Peter Costello, Shell’s Upstream President.
The increased working interest is expected to take effect from 2027.
Mero is a pre-salt oil project in the Santos Basin. The FPSO Guanabara (Mero-1), the FPSO Sepetiba (Mero-2), the FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias (Mero-3), and FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão (Mero 4) came online in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively.
In total, the four FPSOs and an Early Production System (EPS) have a combined gross installed production capacity of 770,000 barrels of oil per day.
Atapu is a pre-salt oil project located in the Santos Basin. Production started in 2020 through the P-70 Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO), which has the capacity to produce 150,000 barrels of oil per day. To support future growth, a second FPSO (P-84), with a production capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil per day, is currently under construction.
