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Being built in Singapore, the rig is designed for drilling depths of up to 30,000 feet in water depths of up to 400ft.
Noble's most recent fleet status report revealed that Apache would use the rig to drill an Australian target from the March to the September quarters next year at a day rate of $US447,000 ($A478,000).
Apache, an established oil and gas producer in WA's offshore Carnarvon and Exmouth basins, agreed to acquire a half stake of Karoon Gas's Carnarvon Basin block WA-482-P last month.
Under the deal Apache committed to funding 90% of an exploration well, capped at $63 million, in the first half of 2015.
Karoon previously said the block had some higher risk, shallower Jurassic targets above the key Mungaroo formation target.
