The process of developing and producing a field typically creates vast amounts of data and information and, as IT and oil & gas technologies continue to improve, the industry’s ability to collect this data is steadily increasing.  A major challenge facing the upstream oil & gas sector, therefore, is to use this data to optimize field development, production, reservoir management, and to provide field managers with a degree of control that allows them to translate this knowledge into maximum value.  Smart Fields is Shell’s response to this challenge.  In a nutshell, Smart Fields represents the move from periodic to continuous optimization, and a shift in focus from point answers to integrated “big picture” solutions.  Smart Fields tools and workflows are being aggressively deployed throughout Shell’s assets around the world, and the company’s activities in North and South America figure prominently in this plan.  This presentation will explain the overarching Smart Fields design philosophy, discuss specific examples of how “smartness” is being added to Shell’s assets in the Western hemisphere, and describe the documented value that Shell has created through the deployment of Smart Fields tools, technologies, and workflows.