Shell starts production offshore Brazil

HOUSTON, March 14 (UPI) -- Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it started production from the third and final phase of operations in the deep waters off the coast of oil-rich Brazil.

"The safe, early delivery of this production is a testament to the efficiency of our deep-water project execution," Wael Sawan, a vice president in charge of deepwater operations for Shell, said in a statement.

Shell holds a 50 percent stake and serves as the operator at the deepwater Parque das Canchas development in the Campos Basin. At peak production, the third and final phase of the development should add another 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to a portfolio that's yielded more than 100 million barrels since 2009.

Shell is part of a consortium developing the Libra field off the coast of Brazil, which it acquired in the early 2016 tie-up with British energy company BG Group.

BG Group last year committed a sizable portion of its planned spending on its Brazilian operations. The company in February issued its last report ahead of the Shell merger, recording a pre-tax profit of $2.97 billion, against a loss of $2.3 billion in 2014.

The company said it was shielded against slumping crude oil prices because of lower operating costs and the addition of low-cost production from Brazil.

The Parque das Canchas development is tied to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel moored about 90 miles off the coast of Brazil.