Fiji forms part of the South-West Pacific island arc system which marks the boundary between the Indo-Australia and Pacific plates. The territorial waters cover almost 1.3 million kmē and contain two shallow-water Tertiary sedimentary basins. Bligh Water Basin, covering some 9500 kmē, has sediment thicknesses in excess of 5km and has excellent potential for hydrocarbons. Bau Waters Basin is also prospective, having a shallow-water area of about 1600kmē, with sediment thicknesses up to 4km.

Fiji first gained attention as an area of petroleum potential in 1968 following the discovery of oil seeps in neighbouring Tonga. Subsequently, there have been two stages of exploration. The first period from 1969 to 1977 commenced with reconnaissance mapping by Shell Internationale and Magellan Petroleum in 1969 and 1970, which provided the first assessments of source rocks and reservoirs. Following this, the first exploration licence, covering Bligh Water Basin, was awarded to a partnership with Southern Pacific Petroleum as operator in 1969. A total of 1590km of regional deismic data was acquired from which sediment thicknesses and general basin depocentres were established.

In 1971 three licences were awarded to Offshore Oil Exploration, Atlantic and Oceanic Resources, and Investment Corporation of Fiji; and a fourth to International Petroleum in 1972. These licences covered the western Yasawa Platform, central Lau Ridge, Bau Waters Basin and Baravi Basin respectively (Figure 1). A total of 1585km of seismic data was acquired in these concessions from 1971 to 1975. A further 4433km of regional speculative seismic data were acquired by Amoco and Western Geophysical in 1972 and 1973.