French energy company Total said Monday it was expecting a big oil pay off from the under-explored deep waters off the coast of the Republic of Guinea. The company signed an evaluation agreement with the National Office of Petroleum of Guinea for deep and “ultra-deep” areas off the Guinean coast. “By taking this position on a new under-explored area, Total pursues its exploration strategy targeting deep offshore prospective basins,” Kevin McLachlan, a senior vice president for exploration and production at Total, said in a statement . “Therefore, Total has the opportunity to evaluate a very large area, located in an extension of the prolific Mauritania-Senegal basin where we already are.” Companies like Australia’s FAR Ltd. […]