Africa-focused energy group Chariot has commenced drilling operations on the Anchois-3 well, offshore Morocco.

The multi-objective well will be developed in four operational phases. The first phase will involve drilling a pilot hole to evaluate the potential of the Anchois footwall prospect, which has a prospective resource estimate of 170 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas.

In the second phase, a side-track well will be drilled to further evaluate the discovered gas sands in the field, which hold a contingent resource estimate of 637 bcf.

Meanwhile, the third phase will involve drilling the deeper Anchois north flank prospect, which has an additional prospective resource of 213 bcf. The third phase will also serve to de-risk the well’s south flank prospect, which holds a prospective resource estimate of 372 bcf.

The fourth phase will conduct flow testing on the encountered gas sands to evaluate productivity, with the option to suspend the well for potential future production.

The well was spud by drilling contractor Stena Drilling’s Forth drillship while anticipated costs of the drilling campaign will be covered by Chariot.

Situated in the Lixus offshore license, the Anchois-3 well is operated by Energean (45%) along with Chariot (30%) and Morocco’s national oil company ONHYM (25%).

The drilling and flow testing operations are expected to take approximately two months to complete. Commercial production of the project is expected to start in 2025.