Antonio Brufau, Repsol’s chairman, is clearly finding it difficult to resist the temptation of joining in Spain’s new national sport. Forget football, tennis or even bullfighting. These days all the talk is of who is playing and who will ultimately prevail in the energy game.

Until recently, Mr Brufau has remained on the sidelines. Rather than engaging in the noisy debate over energy consolidation, he has been quietly getting on with the job of reviving Spain’s biggest integrated oil and gas company and sorting out its problems. Like Shell, Repsol was forced a couple of years ago to restate and write down its oil reserves by as much as a quarter.