The head of Brazil’s hydrocarbons regulator has dismissed suggestions that the country will be forced to postpone at least one of the three licensing rounds scheduled to take place in the final quarter of 2019, writes Gareth Chetwynd.

Decio Oddone, director general of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP), who had earlier dropped his own hint that delaying might be a good idea, came out of a meeting with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and said the schedule is being maintained and stated that “the demand is there”.