The BC-10 project in which Shell owns 50% share, Petrobras owns 35%, and ONGC holds 15%, consist of various subsea fields that are tied back to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Espírito Santo.

According to the company, the first phase of the project began production in 2009, when the Abalone and Ostra fields were connected, along with the Argonauta B-West reservoir.

During the phase, peak production was said to be more than 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2010, and is currently producing 35,000boe per day.

Phase two, which connected a fourth reservoir, the Argonauta O-North to the vessel, is expected to produce about 35,000boe per day at its peak.

Shell installed a 4-D Life of Field Seismic monitoring system throughout the field on the seabed as part of phase two subsea development.

The technology installed on a full-field scale about 1800m or 6000ft allows the company to monitor the reservoir.

Shell Upstream Americas deep water executive vice president John Hollowell said, "Boosting production at BC-10 with the completion of phase two is another great example of our successful project development, delivery and execution capabilities."

In July Shell and its partners decided to go ahead with the BC-10 project’s third development phase to increase the production life of BC-10.

The development phase will include the installation of subsea-infrastructure at the Massa and Argonauta O-South reservoirs. Once online, phase three of the project is expected to reach a peak production of 28,000boe.