Nine months after the discovery of potentially huge deposits of oil off the coast, there is little doubt that Brazil will soon become one of the world’s leading oil-producing nations.

There is much more uncertainty over how the country will manage its new-found wealth. The biggest immediate doubt – beyond the technical difficulties of getting at the very deep reserves trapped beneath a salt shelf below the ocean floor – concerns the regime under which oil companies will be invited to join Petrobras, the government-controlled oil company, in bringing oil and gas to the surface.