The Tapir South prospect, is part of the Tapir trend, and is located in Chariot’s 100% owned Northern Block 1811A.
The well is located at 80km offshore Namibia in 2,108m of water with a drilling depth of about 5,100m total vertical depth subsea.
The company said the rig will arrive on location at the end of March this year.
The initial drilling programme will be scheduled and further wells planned for 2013.
Chariot CEO Paul Welch said the company is extremely pleased to have concluded this drilling rig contract with Maersk and to provide an anticipated spud date for its first exploration well offshore Namibia.
"Despite the tight rig market we have secured an excellent drilling rig for the Tapir South prospect with a highly reputable contractor," said Welch.
"This will be only the second well ever to have been drilled in the Namibe Basin and we look forward to commencing our operations and updating the market with our progress in due course."
The exploration well on Tapir South is estimated to take approximately two months to drill and is the first well in Chariot’s 4 to 5 well 2012/2013 exploration program.
A second exploration well, Kabeljou-1, is expected to be drilled in Chariot’s Southern Block, 2714A, on the Nimrod prospect later this year.
The remainder of its initial drilling program will be determined and further wells planned for 2013, once the company received results of Tapir South, Kabeljou-1 and interpretation of Chariot’s recently acquired 3500 km² 3D seismic in its Central blocks.
