ENG

  • Yan GAO

    Equity Partner / Beijing

  • Tel +86-10-5957-2288

    Email gaoyan@zhonglun.com

  • Practices

    Investment/M&A & Corporate Governance, Cross-border Investment/M&A, Construction & Project Development

  • Industries

    Energy & Power

CV

Yan GAO

Ms. Gao has practiced in the areas of energy & natural resources, corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, foreign investment, and compliance for more than 18 years. She has represented multiple foreign and domestic clients ranging from multinational companies, large state-owned enterprises to private companies, including Fortune 500 companies, providing them with legal services for their investment in China and abroad.

As legal counsel to many well-known domestic and foreign companies in the sectors of energy and foreign investment, Ms. Gao is proficient in contract review, management, and compliance issues arising from companies'daily operation. Ms. Gao has also provided legal services relating to procurement, trade, and tendering.

Through her legal work with large foreign and Chinese companies, Ms. Gao has accumulated extensive experience in the energy sector concerning investment and financing, new energy projects, foreign direct investment, full lifecycle onshore and offshore M&A transactions, as well as infrastructure and construction projects. She is familiar with FIDIC contract terms.

Representative Matters

Energy and Natural Resources

New Energy Industry

  • Advised China Southern Power Grid International Co., Ltd. on its bidding for the EPC project of a pumped storage power station in the Philippines 

  • Advised a foreign fund on its sale of photovoltaic and wind power asset packages

  • Acted as retainer-based legal counsel for Envision Energy's acquisition of wind power business

  • Advised China Minsheng Investment Group New Energy Co., Ltd. on its acquisition of photovoltaic power generation projects with a total capacity of more than 290MWp

  • Advised China Minsheng Investment Group New Energy Co., Ltd. on the development of a 200MW photovoltaic power generation project in Yanchi, Ningxia Autonomous Region

  • Advised Brookfields on a distributed photovoltaic project in China

  • Advised TerraForm Global on its wind farm business in China

  • Advised Peabody Energy Corporation of the United States in its equity investment in Green Power Generation Co., Ltd.'s IGCC project in Tianjin

  • Advised a European energy company on its investment in clean coal and wind energy projects in China 

  • Advised Renewable Energy Asia Holdings Limited (REA) on its M&A project in China's wind energy sector


Oil & Gas, Power, and Natural Resources

  • Advised National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. on its acquisition of a minority stake in the National Pipe Network Group United Pipeline Co., Ltd.

  • Advised National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. and Kunlun Energy Company Limited on the secondary transaction project of pipeline assets

  • Advised National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. on the Gansu Provincial Network Integration Project

  • Advised West To East Gas Transmission Branch of National Petroleum Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. on the Jiangxi Provincial Network Integration Project 

  • Advised National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. on the drafting and negotiation of contracts for the use of oil and gas infrastructure such as gas storage, natural gas pipelines, crude oil pipelines, refined oil pipelines, and liquefied natural gas receiving stations

  • Advised China Southern Power Grid International (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. on a power transmission equity acquisition project in Brazil

  • Advised China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd. on its investment in GCL-Poly's investment in oil and gas/LNG in Ethiopia 

  • Advised a private-sector investment group on acquiring oil and gas assets in an African country

  • Advised Newfield Exploration Co. on its offshore exploration and development project in China

  • Advised a construction group, which is a centrally-administered State-owned enterprise, on its investment in the integrated construction of natural gas pipelines and liquefaction terminals in East Africa

  • Advised Canadian Foresight Group Pte. Ltd. on its investment in an oil and gas block in Myanmar

  • Advised Shell China on its gas project in Suzhou

  • Advised SK Group on its domestic LNG procurement and sale business

  • Advised a Singaporean oil service company on its offshore service project in China

  • Advised an international bank on a financing project for the exploration and production of a coalbed methane block in China

  • Advised an American petroleum equipment company on its procurement project in China

  • Advised AAG Energy Holdings Limited on its overseas oil and gas asset investment projects

  • Advised Shell on its East China Sea natural gas project with CNOOC, Sinopec, and Unocal

  • Advised on Shell and Sinopec's coal gasification plant engineering general contracting (EPC) project, covering issues relating to engineering construction, procurement, loans, etc.

  • Advised on Shell's Changbei natural gas development project with the investment totaling more than USD 600 million, providing legal services covering production sharing contracts, natural gas sales, engineering, bidding, construction, procurement, etc.

  • Advised Chevron and PetroChina on their Sichuan natural gas project 

  • Advised Chevron and PetroChina on a coalbed methane development project

  • Advised an American oil company on the sale of its offshore oilfield project in China

  • Advised Apache Corporation on the sale of its offshore oil development project

  • Advised Asian American Coal Inc. on its acquisition of overseas coal asset 

  • Advised Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) on its mineral acquisition project in Xinjiang

  • Advised Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. on its acquisition project in Shanxi Province

  • Advised China Railway Resources Group Co., Ltd. on several overseas mining acquisition projects Advised Peabody Energy Corporation on the investment and acquisition project in China's coal industry

  • Advised a Chinese petroleum engineering service company on its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

  • Advised a US energy company with Chinese resources on its initial offering on AIM, the small and medium-sized board of the London Stock Exchange


Energy Logistics Industry

  • Advised Sinochem Energy Logistics on its investment in an oil product storage and transportation terminal enterprise

  • Advised Sinochem Energy Co., Ltd. on its acquisition of a petrochemical port company

  • Advised a private enterprise group on the sale of a petrochemical port asset

  • Advised COSCO Group on its marine lubricant procurement


Foreign Investment/M&A

  • Advised ENGIE China Investment Company on various investment and exit projects in China

  • Advised a European petrochemical company on its acquisition of equity interests in a large Sino-foreign petrochemical joint venture

  • Advised a Malaysian oil service company on its investment in China

  • Acted as PRC legal counsel to NVIDIA Corporation for its acquisition of an American company 

  • Advised NVIDIA Corporation on the liquidation and deregistration of 


eight companies in China

  • Advised Cochlear on the establishment of foreign-invested companies and joint ventures in Chengdu

  • Advised Cochlear on its transformation of medical device sales from traditional distribution model to direct sales model in China, covering drafting and negotiation of cooperation agreement and service agreement, legal structure and corporate governance, anti-monopoly, and other legal matters

  • Advised AGILOX, a leading German robotics company, on its business development in China

  • Advised on an Italian cooperation project of Tongyi Petroleum Chemical Co., Ltd.

  • Advised Huo's Group and the Carlyle Group on the acquisition of Shell Unified Lubricants

  • Advised PART Aerospace Service Limited on the establishment of a joint venture in Yinchuan

  • Advised ESI on its acquisition of Topwin in China

  • Advised Warburg Pincus on the EPC contract for its industrial warehousing project in Shanghai

  • Advised Amsted Industries Inc. on its direct investment in the fields of railway and automobile in China


Retainer-based Legal Counsel

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for West To East Gas Transmission Branch of National Petroleum Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for National Pipe Network Group North Pipeline Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for LNG Terminal Management Branch of National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd. 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for CNOOC (China) Limited 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for CNOOC (China) Limited Beijing Research Center 

  • Acting as retainer-basedlegal counsel for CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co., Ltd. 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for CNOOC International Trade Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for China National Aviation Fuel Group Limited 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for Procurement Center of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company 

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for Sinochem Energy Logistics Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for Xinli Energy Development Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as retainer-based legal counsel for Envision Energy Group

Memberships & Affiliations

Member, Association of International Energy Negotiators

Secretary General, Zhong Lun Charity Foundation

Publications

“Analysis on the Key Points in Legal Compliance for the Access, Development, and Construction of Foreign-Invested New Energy Projects”, Zhong Lun Research Institute, 2021

“Set Sail for the '14th Five-Year Plan'- Guideline on Policy and Practice Points of Offshore Wind Power”, Zhong Lun Research Institute, 2021

“Analysis of Legal Issues in Rooftop Distributed Photovoltaic Development”, Zhong Lun Research Institute, 2021

“Analysis of Key Legal Issues in the CSO Marketing Model of Drug and Medical Device Manufacturers under the Background of the 'Two-Invoice System'”, Zhong Lun Research Institute, 2020

Related

  • Bar Admissions/Professional Qualifications

    PRC Bar

  • Education

    LL.B., Peking University Law School
    LL.M., the Faculty of Law of University of British Columbia

  • Professional Experience

    Partner, Zhong Lun Law Firm
    Shell (China) Limited
    Jones Day

  • Languages

    Chinese
    English