The offshore Bight Basin represents the world’s last underexplored Cretaceous delta with potential for giant petroleum accumulations. Evidence for an active petroleum system, including natural oil and gas seeps, natural strandings of asphaltite along the Southern Ocean facing coastline and organic-rich source rocks, is attracting the world’s major oil and independent companies. These include Chevron Australia New Ventures Pty Ltd, BP Developments Australia Pty Ltd (BP), Statoil Australia Theta B.V., Murphy Australia Oil Pty Ltd, Santos Offshore Ltd and Bight Petroleum Pty Ltd. Collectively, off South Australia, these companies have guaranteed to spend approximately $1.2 billion over the period 2011–18 in Exploration Petroleum Permits (EPPs) 37–45 that will result in the drilling of nine wells and acquisition of 40 622 km2 of 3D seismic data (Fig. 1). An additional $1.1 billion in non-guaranteed exploration within these permits is also possible in the following three-year period for 10 wells and 8969 km2 of 3D seismic data