Gas and Oil Processing, a European Lebanese Cooperation

Energy problems play an important role in the global development of industrial and underdeveloped countries. Energy issues are usually accompanied with the challenging trade off of energy production and environmental sustainability. Recently, an offshore reserve of Oil and Gas was localized in the Mediterranean Sea near the Lebanese coast. The Lebanese Government set up a new “Gas and Oil Committee” belonging to the Water and Energy Ministry. The goal of this Committee is to publish tenders for Gas and Oil Offshore inspection and exploitation. An increasing demand for Engineers in the field of new reservoir drilling and fuel raw material processing is expected in the upcoming twenty-five years.The Lebanese Higher Education sector is a well-developed one. This sector regroups one public University which is the Lebanese University and more than 50 private universities. All the Lebanese universities’ curricula are one step behind in the field of Gas and Oil processing. This is due to the fact that the country is not a producer of this kind of raw material. Two refineries were present in the country before the civil war (1975-1989). Those refineries were completely destroyed during the civil war and their actual role has been reduced to the imported fuel storage. This project will address all the above problems by setting up a new teaching curriculum at the Lebanese universities by a joint effort with the European universities members of the Consortium. This project will also help in creating a network of Lebanese and European universities promoting academic excellence through joint research, education, and exchange of experience. This will contribute in the sustainable development of the Lebanese higher educational system and in improving the career prospects of scholars in their home countries.This new curriculum will allow forming engineers who can produce and manage innovation in the chemical, Gas and Oil processing, environmental, and new materials sectors.