Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-24 18:27:43|Editor: xuxin

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BEIRUT, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon is holding discussions with Europe, Turkey and other countries to build the needed infrastructure for the export of oil and gas, said Walid Nasr, chairman of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, on Monday.

"Lebanon imports its oil and gas demands today. If oil and gas wealth is discovered in Lebanon, our priority is to cater to the electricity and industrial sectors first and if we are lucky enough to discover high volumes, then we will be exporting our wealth," Nasr said during the FIATA RAME (International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in the Region of Africa and Middle East) conference, which was held in Beirut for the first time.

Lebanese Energy Minister Nada Boustani announced earlier this year the launch of Lebanon's second licensing round for offshore oil and gas exploration in five blocks.

In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production contracts for two energy blocks with a consortium of France's Total, Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek.

Nasr explained that it is still not clear how many job opportunities the oil and gas sector will be able to create because there is no awareness yet about the volume of wealth available in Lebanon's offshore territories.

However, he noted that each job created by the oil and gas sector in Lebanon will create nine to ten jobs in other sectors of the economy.