VIENNA, Aug 8: Austrian oil and gas giant OMV said on Friday it had acquired stakes in two licences to explore for oil in Pakistan.

OMV said in a statement it had agreed to acquire a 30-per cent stake in the “Kalat” exploration licence and a 15-per cent stake in the “Barkhan” licence, both in the province of Balochistan.

“The areas are under-explored but considered as highly prospective drilling areas,” OMV said.

Partners in the Kalat licence were Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) and ENI Pakistan, while partners in the Barkhan licence were PPL and MND Exploration and Production.

Kalat is a block of 2,842 square kilometres and Barkhan 2,105 square kilometres.

“These new exploration licences acquire acreage with highly attractive exploration potential,” said OMV board member Helmut Langanger.

“It enables us to proceed with our plans for further growth in Pakistan where we are currently the biggest international gas producer,” Langanger said.

Geophysical surveys will start this month. OMV now holds a total of eight licences in Pakistan.

In all, OMW holds exploration and production licences in 20 countries in central and eastern Europe, North Africa, north-western Europe, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, and Russia and the Caspian region.

OMV’s daily production volume is around 316,000 barrels per day and at the end of 2007, it had reserves of 1.22 billion barrels.—Agencies