Shell announced it has begun production from its Mars B development through Olympus – its seventh, and largest, deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

It claims it is the first deepwater project in the Gulf to expand an existing oil and gas field with “significant new infrastructure”.

The Olympus platform sits in roughly 945 metres of water where additional development drilling is expected to ramp up an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day in 2016.

The Mars B site produced an average of over 60,000 boe per day last year and is a joint venture between Shell and BP.

Shell expects the added production from Olympus to deliver an estimated one billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The field was discovered in 1989 and production initially began in 1996.