Shell Hits the Offshore Jackpot-While the Planet Picks Up the Tab

By John Donovan: royaldutchshellplc.com

BREAKING: Shell has fired up yet another climate cannon.

The oil giant, forever young in its fossil fuel addiction, has begun pumping from the Mero-4 platform off the coast of Brazil. That’s right—just when you thought the world might try to slow down on emissions, Shell straps on its rig boots and cranks open the taps in one of Earth’s most carbon-loaded treasure chests.

Operating in Brazil’s pre-salt Santos Basin—because if you’re going to torch the future, you might as well do it offshore and under two kilometres of ocean—the FPSO “Alexandre de Gusmão” now joins the ever-swelling Mero family of floating oil factories. It’s named after a 17th-century diplomat, because nothing says “legacy” like an oil slick.

Let’s run the numbers. This industrial Leviathan will belch out 180,000 barrels of oil per day, paired with 12 million cubic metres of compressed gas. Shell holds a tidy 19.3% stake, which, in corporate-speak, translates to “enough to cash in, not enough to blame.”

Upstream President Peter Costello could barely contain his glee:

“Mero-4 is the latest example of how we are working with our partners to unlock value from world-class reservoirs.”

Ah yes, “unlocking value”—the corporate euphemism for “extracting carbon while pretending not to notice the planet’s fever.”

Shell’s Brazil portfolio, he continued, boasts “long-life assets with high flow rates.” Long-life for Shell’s profits, that is. The life expectancy of coral reefs, Amazon biodiversity, or climate stability? Less fortunate.

The Usual Suspects

The Mero field—a glittering offshore mirage—now features four FPSOs with a combined installed capacity of 770,000 barrels per day. That’s almost enough to fill a swimming pool every hour with oil. Just don’t light a match.

The partners in this petro-party?

• Petrobras (38.6%) – Brazil’s fossil flagship.

• Shell & TotalEnergies (19.3% each) – two greenwashing titans fighting for second place in the Sin Stock Olympics.

• CNPC & CNOOC (9.65%) – because no petro-parade is complete without China.

• PPSA (3.5%) – the government’s nod to national interest (and plausible deniability).

Shell’s target? A million barrels of oil equivalent per day from new upstream projects by 2030. Because nothing screams “net zero” like a million-barrel-a-day fossil binge.

And the Enablers…

Of course, Shell isn’t doing this alone. Where there’s crude, there’s capital. Shell’s major investors—BlackRock and Vanguard—continue to bankroll this oily orgy, dressing up dirty profits as “long-term value creation.” Forget ESG. These are the same asset managers who peddle sustainability brochures while voting down climate resolutions faster than Shell can drill a new well.

They enable Shell the same way a syringe enables a junkie. With one hand, they pour ink into glossy green reports; with the other, they sign cheques soaked in hydrocarbons.

A Legacy Drenched in Oil and… Intelligence?

Let’s not forget Shell’s historic playbook. This is a company that co-founded Hakluyt & Co., a private intelligence firm stacked with ex-MI6 spooks. Because when you’re hiding skeletons in your oil drums, it helps to have friends in espionage.

And if apartheid-era collaboration is your thing, Shell ticks that box too—earning its place in the Petroleum Hall of Shame alongside BP, another serial polluter and eternal merger flirt.

Shell isn’t transitioning. It’s trenching.

Into deeper oceans, into dirtier wells, into more dangerous denial. All while marketing departments serenade us with visions of solar panels and hydrogen unicorns.

Mero-4 isn’t progress. It’s a monument to climate betrayal.

A 200,000-tonne floating middle finger to the Paris Agreement.

Graphic credit: royaldutchshellplc.com and John Donovan in collaboration with AI

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