"Preliminary studies show that Sudan is situated on a true lake of oil," Ismail was quoted as saying.

Mohammed Isa, a high-ranking Sudanese diplomat with the embassy in Brasilia, told Dow Jones Newswires the August figure is approximately right, and that Sudan's current oil exports are about 350,000 b/d. He could not immediately confirm the forecast for 2008.

Foreign Minister Ismail also invited Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras SA (PBR) to invest in Sudanese oil projects.

Petrobras officials contacted by Dow Jones Newswires had no immediate comment.

Ismail, according to the commerce chamber, also said his government "needs" Brazilian products as it plans to invest $6 billion in infrastructure in the African country that has been devastated by a 21-year of civil war, between the Muslim Arab north and the largely Christian and animist African south.

The conflict has left an estimated two million people dead. The government in Khartoum and the southern Sudanese rebels in January 2005 signed a comprehensive peace agreement.

"The Sudanese government wants to rebuild the country after last year's peace agreement," Isa said. "We want new roads, hospitals, airports."

Ismail also invited Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to visit Sudan, the commerce chamber said.

The prospect of potentially lucrative oil contracts in Sudan has been met with interest by companies such as France's Total SA (TOT), Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO), Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPT.YY), or London-listed White Nile Ltd. (WNL.LN).

But the Arab-led regime in Khartoum and a government-in-waiting of Southern Sudan to be instated on July 9 and led by the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, or SPLM, have disagreements over who is in charge of granting oil exploration and production contracts.