Shell

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, said production started at its Gulf of Mexico Perdido oil and natural-gas platform, the deepest drilling facility in the world, enabling the company to expand its Gulf operations.

The company expects the $4.4 billion project to reach full output of more than 100,000 barrels of oil and 200 million cubic feet of natural gas, Marvin Odum, president of U.S. operations for The Hague-based Shell, said today on a conference call. Shell didn’t provide a timeframe for full production. The facility will initially produce oil from the Great White field, and later from the Tobago and Silvertip fields, Odum said.

The three fields are located in the Alaminos Canyon, about 200 miles (321 kilometers) south of Freeport, Texas. Advances in technology have opened access to deepwater deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, where BP Plc’s Tiber discovery may hold 3 billion barrels of crude and gas, the London-based company said in September.