The Bight Basin is a frontier basin. From the late 1960s to the early 1990s three discrete cycles of petroleum exploration were undertaken in the region. During this time only nine wells were drilled in the entire offshore portion of the basin. All wells were drilled within relatively thin successions on the margins of the basin and none encountered significant hydrocarbons.

The thickest depocentre, the Ceduna Sub-basin, covers an area of more than 155,000 km2, but prior to the current exploration round, only five petroleum exploration wells had been drilled within the sub-basin.

However, since 1999 the Great Australian Bight has been the focus for the release of exploration areas by the Australian Government. In 2000, a consortium comprising Woodside Petroleum, EnCana Corporation (then PanCanadian) and Anadarko Petroleum were awarded three large exploration permits in the Ceduna Sub-basin. Smaller permits were also awarded in the Duntroon Sub-basin to both the Woodside consortium and Australian explorer Santos Ltd.

The exploration programs associated with these permits include the acquisition of over 18,000 line kilometres of 2D seismic data, reprocessing of seismic data and geological and geophysical studies. Exploration interest focused largely on Late Cretaceous deltaic systems in the Ceduna and Duntroon Sub-basins.

In 2003, Woodside and partners drilled the unsuccessful Gnarlyknots 1, the first well in the basin since 1993. By November 2007 all exploration permits in the Bight Basin had been relinquished.

In early 2007 Geoscience Australia undertook a 3 week sampling survey onboard the RV Southern Surveyor which identified potential source rocks in the basin.

A total of 37 dredge samples of were taken, resulting in 259 samples that underwent organic geochemical analyses. These analyses have shown that a set of Cenomanian–Turonian age samples from the western Ceduna Sub-basin have excellent source rock characteristics, with high organic carbon contents (TOC 2.1%-6.2%) and the potential to generate liquid hydrocarbons (HI 274-479 mgHC/gTOC).