Brazil Field Puts Shell in a Good Spot

GUY CHAZAN

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is the latest in a small group of Western energy companies pumping crude out of Brazil amid intensifying international interest in the country's deepwater oil reserves.

The official launch of Shell's BC-10 oil field Tuesday, off Brazil's southeast coast, comes as the country prepares to approve long-awaited laws on how to regulate its subsalt reserves, a vast resource that has emerged as a kind of El Dorado for the global energy industry.