Brazil's Petrobras eyes Angola's deep water oil

* Brazil seeks to promote trade with Africa

LUANDA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-owned Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote) is interested in developing Angola's ultra-deepwater oil exploration, known as pre-salt, Brazil's Trade and Development Minister Miguel Jorge said on Tuesday.

Angola shares a similar underwater rock formation as Brazil, which in 2007 made a pre-salt discovery of some 8 billion barrels of crude in its Tupi field.

"A director of Petrobras had a meeting with Angola's economy minister and told him Petrobras, which is present here, has a big interest in drilling and working in an area we call pre-salt -- deep and ultra deep waters," said Jorge.

He was speaking to journalists at the start of a three-nation tour to Angola, South Africa and Mozambique aimed at promoting trade between Africa and Brazil.

Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote) said in in July it was also looking at pre-salt exploration in Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer.

Jorge said Brazil, a major biofuels producer, was also working with Angola and other African nations to help them produce sugar and ethanol as a way of bolstering their once-prosperous farming sectors.

"It's an idea and a dream of President Lula that agriculture becomes an irreversible process in Africa and we think that biofuels is an important step in that direction," Jorge said.

For a story on Angola biofuels click on: [ID:nLR412662]

(Reporting by Henrique Almeida; editing by Sue Thomas)