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Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva may boost the government's stake in oil fields after the largest discovery in the Americas since 1976 prompted a review of rules for how petroleum deposits are developed.
Lula is examining how Brazil and producers will share revenue from offshore deposits that may hold more than $6 trillion of oil at current prices.
Lula said the Tupi discovery and nearby prospects will at least triple Brazil's crude reserves, and he wants the wealth to be shared nationwide.
"This oil is ours, it belongs to the people, not Petrobras or Shell," Lula said in a June 26 interview. "The wealth is not for the few, it's for the many."
Brazil would join oil-rich nations demanding a bigger piece of record profits after petroleum prices tripled in four years. Petrobras is calling for agreements like those used by Nigeria to take ownership stakes rather than selling concessions. Unions that helped bring Lula to power in 2003 are lobbying lawmakers to nationalise the industry, a decade after opening it to competition.
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