The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has concluded plans to inaugurate the Advisory Council and Body of Neutrals of the oil and gas industry’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre (ADRC) in Lagos.

Head, Public Affairs, DPR, Mr. Paul Osu, made this known in a statement issued on Monday in Lagos, Nigerias South-west.

Osu said that the centre would be inaugurated on April 15.

He said that the ADRC was one of the centres in the DPR National Oil and Gas Excellence Centre inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari recently.

According to him, the centre will offer arbitration, mediation and conciliation services for the industry.

“The centre will leverage industry technical experts, Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners and resources of the National Data Repository to provide fair and balanced resolutions of industry-related disputes from an informed position.

”The ADRC is structured to adequately resolve disputes in a manner consistent with regulatory and commercial interests of the industry.

“This will address suboptimal development of oil and gas assets associated with lingering disputes,” he said.

Osu added that this would eliminate the attendant consequences of value erosion in terms of national resource growth, global competitiveness, investment attractiveness and investor’s profitability.

Two senior Lebanese Cabinet Ministers on Monday signed a document expanding Lebanon’s claims in a row with Israel over their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.

The amendment would add around 1,400 square km (540 square miles) to the exclusive economic zone claimed by Lebanon in its original submission to the United Nations.

Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel were launched in October to try to resolve the dispute. The talks, a culmination of three years of diplomacy by the United States, have since stalled.

The document signed by the caretaker public works and transport minister and the defense minister now needs to be signed off by the caretaker prime minister and president ahead of a request to the United Nations for a formal claim to register the new coordinates for the maritime zone.

Israel already pumps gas from huge offshore fields but Lebanon has yet to find commercial gas reserves in its own waters.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said Lebanon’s latest move would derail the talks rather than help work towards a common solution.

China has imposed a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech conglomerate whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November, underscoring Beijing’s determination to rein in its internet giants.

The overhaul, in the works for several months, includes Ant turning itself into a financial holding firm, a move expected to curb its profitability and valuation by curtailing some of its freewheeling businesses.

It comes two days after Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, of which Ant is an affiliate, was hit with a record $2.75 billion antitrust penalty as China tightens controls on the booming “platform economy”.

The overhaul, directed by China’s central bank, subjects Ant to tougher regulatory oversight and capital requirements, and requires it to cut links between its hugely popular payments app Alipay and its other businesses – which had been viewed as a big advantage due to Alipay’s vast trove of customer data.

This restructure effectively splits Ant into a few independent businesses to stop Alipay from being a super app capable of controlling the day to day lives of the Chinese people,” said Lightstream Research analyst Oshadhi Kumarasiri, who publishes on the Smartkamra platform.

U.S President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure investment package includes $300 billion to boost the struggling U.S. manufacturing sector, including $50 billion for semiconductor production and research, the White House said on Monday.

U.S. President Joe Biden will urge Congress to invest $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research when he meets with top executives from nearly 20 major companies on Monday about the global chips shortage that has roiled the automotive industry and technology firms.

The push is part of his broader focus on rebuilding U.S. manufacturing as a powerhouse for the world’s largest economy – and a source of good-paying jobs – after years of declining investments and productivity growth, a senior administration official said.

The White House meeting is billed as the “CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience” and will include White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese.

Biden is expected to stop by the meeting to push his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, which includes $300 billion aimed at expanding manufacturing, especially in disadvantaged areas and communities of color through loans, grants, investments and the targeted use of federal procurements.

While the proposed investments will take time to implement, the administration is also seeking “short-term and medium-term solutions that will be discussed during the summit,” the official said. No further details were immediately available.

Twitter, US-based microblogging and social networking service, has announced the launch of its first-ever African office in Ghana.
Jack Dorsey, the company’s CEO, broke the news in terse post on the microblogging platform on Monday.

“Twitter is now present on the continent. Thank you Ghana and @NAkufoAddo #TwitterGhana,” he wrote.

In a blog post, the social media giant said the move was informed by its quest to enhance public conversation across African communities.

In a tweet, Nana Akufo-Addo, the country’s president, hailed the move while expressing his administration’s support for the company.