Austria's OMV announced Wednesday that it is on a major upstream recruitment drive. The firm said it needs 1,600 additional technical staff by 2016 as it sees a significant expansion in its exploration and production activities.

OMV said that it would be looking to recruit recent university graduates with degrees in geosciences and oil engineering, as well as experienced specialists.

The company has recently made several significant upstream investments in Norway and the Black Sea, and will be recruiting primarily to support these projects. OMV is a partner in developing the Aasta Hansteen and Zidane gas fields in the Norwegian Sea, where its activities will include building a large, state-of-the-art gas platform. In the Black Sea, OMV is working on developing what it says may be the largest gas discovery in the company's history.

OMV said it is planning on investing $2.6 billion during the next few years on upstream activities.

OMV's activities are not restricted to Europe and Central Asia, however. The firm also operates in North Africa, the Middle East and even on the other side of the world in Australia and New Zealand.

OMV CEO Gerhard Ross commented in a company statement Wednesday:

"OMV's focus has been on the exploration and production segment since 2011. This is now having a positive impact on the job market. We will need 1,600 new employees to achieve the growth we have planned. We are looking for motivated individuals with a technical background and an interest in working in some of the most exciting places in the world."

Recently, OMV reported that a number of issues had adversely affected its production during the second quarter of 2013.