When Britain’s Prince Harry last week rode the cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain, one of Rio de Janeiro’s biggest tourist attractions, it was hardly surprising that BG Group was among the companies at the event showcasing its presence in the Latin American market.

The natural gas company is the largest UK investor in Brazil, with $5bn tied up chiefly in five offshore blocks off the country’s south-eastern coast. It also has a majority holding in Brazil’s largest natural gas distributor, Comgás, and a stake in a gas pipeline between Latin America’s largest economy and its neighbour, Bolivia. “BG Group has been present in Brazil for over 18 years,” the company said at the event to promote UK interests.

But BG and other longstanding investors in the country no longer have the market to themselves. Since Shell became the first international operator to start oil and gas production in Brazil in 2003, ending the former monopoly of state-owned oil operator Petrobras, at least 36 foreign companies have entered the country’s upstream market, according to Ernst & Young.

Chinese companies, particularly oil and petrochemical group Sinopec, are now among the largest investors in Brazilian oil and gas.

Sinopec in November paid a total of $5.2bn for a 30 per cent stake in the Brazilian assets of Galp Energia, the Portuguese energy company. This follows Sinopec’s $7.1bn purchase of the Brazilian assets of Repsol YPF in 2010.

Among the other Chinese groups, Sinochem has a $3.1bn stake in a field off Brazil’s south-eastern coast operated by Norway’s Statoil.

Most other international oil majors are represented in Brazil as well – aside from Shelland BG, Chevron and ExxonMobil have interests in blocks in the country and BP has bought $7bn in assets from Devon Energy of the US that include interests in Brazil.

But Brazil also comes with its risks, as Chevron discovered after a small oil leak at a field near Rio de Janeiro last year provoked an outcry from all levels of government accompanied by a $10.6bn lawsuit.