In New Zealand, offshore drilling continued; 5 wells were drilled in water depths from 50 to 480 m, amounting to a total drilled of 17,489 m, an increase of 43%. All were dry and abandoned, though significant gas and some oil shows were encountered in Toroa 1, which is the first wildcat in the newly discovered, very large Great South basin where sedimentary rocks in excess of 5 km are indicated by seismic work. Marine seismic surveys were conducted both in the Great South and Taranaki basins, and amounted to 6,378 km. Onshore 2 more shallow wells were drilled in the subcommercial Moturoa field, but no production has been obtained. The Kapuni field nearly tripled its production to 1,421,248 cu m of gas and 600,328 cu m of condensate; this corresponds to 137.5 MMCFGD and 10 345 b/d of condensate. Concessions further decreased to 2,974.6 sq mi (7,704.2 sq km) on land, and to 229,081 sq mi (593,319.8 sq km) offshore; a further 38,047 sq mi (98,541.7 sq km) of offshore concessions will expire on September 30, 1977.

In Tonga a 3,000-sq mi (7,770 sq km) exploration license was granted to Webb-Tonga who plan to do a detailed seismic survey on the island of Tongatapu prior to drilling a deep test.

In Fiji only 1 block now is held under license, which will expire in August 1977. A total of 11 blocks with 32,895 sq mi (85,198 sq km) thus will be available for concessions.

In the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands there is still no legislation for oil exploration, and no further activity is reported.

In Papua New Guinea 2 wells were drilled to a combined depth of 4,125 m; this is 39% of last year's drilling depth. Seismic surveys were conducted both on land and offshore to a total of 688 km and 2,047.7 km, respectively. Further considerable changes in license holdings have occurred.