debate over the meaning of the ten years of government by the Partido dos trabalhadores (PT), is if the government managed to implement a new paradigm of development which exceed the logic of the Washington Consensus. This article presents some elements of the debate around «neo-developmentalism» and focuses on the enormous deepwater oil reserves discovered in Brazil in 2007, in which the hydrocarbon is found below thick layers of salt. Central to this discussion are the role of the state and of Petrobras, and the uptake of the oil revenue and the industrial and technological policies, starting from local requirements.