This course aims at providing participants with the ‘regional picture’ that controls the complex play systems of the Central and South Atlantic using largely unpublished material gathered from the authors own regional work and attendance at scores of conferences on the region, many organised by himself. By presenting these regional models during the course and in a detailed manual full of palaeotectonic- paleogeographic maps, stratigraphic charts and play cross-sections, the course aims to save participants the equivalents of hundreds of thousands of dollars on mantime conducting regional research, so that they can then concentrate on their own ventures and prospects. Specific attention is paid to the pre-salt plays of the South Atlantic, and the complex interrelated tectonic, depositional and geochemical models that are now being unravelled for these plays. Recent well results are reviewed and explained. The lectures are interspersed with numerous case studies analysing each of the key regional controls, some of which will be run as group discussions and guided exercises.