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 in the Chinese mainland and compliance for more than 18 years. She focuses on representing foreign and domestic clients, from multinational companies, large state-owned enterprises to private companies, including Fortune 500 companies, in dealing with their cross-border transactions in China and all over the world.

Ms. Gao is retained as legal counsel by many well-known domestic and foreign companies, and is proficient in contracts review, management and compliance in companies’ daily operation. Ms. Gao has also provided procurement, trade and tendering services for a number of clients in the energy and foreign investment sectors.

As a foreign legal counsel for large foreign and Chinese companies, Ms. Gao has extensive experience in the areas of investment and financing in the energy sectors, new energy projects, foreign direct investment projects, full-course domestic and offshore M&A transactions, as well as infrastructure and construction projects, and she is familiar with FIDIC Contract Terms.

Representative Matters

Energy and Resources

New energy industry

  • Advised China Southern Power Grid International Co., Ltd. for the EPC bidding project of the Philippine pumped storage power station

  • Advised a foreign fund in selling photovoltaic and wind power asset packages

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for Envision Energy’s wind power acquisition business

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

  • Advised China Minsheng Investment Group New Energy Co., Ltd. on a 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 project of Green Power Generation Co., Ltd.'s IGCC project in Tianjin

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

  • 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 Ethiopian oil and gas LNG investment project

  • Advised a private investment group to acquire oil and gas assets in a certain African country

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

  • Advised a central enterprise construction group on its investment in the integrated construction project of natural gas pipeline and liquefaction terminal in East Africa

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

  • Advised Shell China on its gas project in Suzhou

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

  • Advised a Singapore 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's overseas oil and gas asset investment projects

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

  • Advised Shell and Sinopec's coal gasification plant engineering general contracting (EPC) project, including engineering construction, procurement and loans, etc.

  • Advised Shell's Changbei natural gas development project with a total investment of more than 600 million US dollars, including product sharing contracts, natural gas sales, engineering design, bidding, construction, procurement, etc.

  • Advised Chevron and PetroChina on the Sichuan natural gas project 

  • Advised Chevron and PetroChina on the coalbed methane development project 

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

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

  • Advised Asian American Coal Inc. on the overseas coal asset acquisition project

  • 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. in 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 U.S. energy company with Chinese resources in 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's marine lubricant procurement project


Foreign investment/M&A

  • Advised ENGIE China Investment Company on various investments and exits in China

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

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

  • Advised NVIDIA CORPORATION on its acquisition of an American company with legal services in China

  • Advised NVIDIA CORPORATION in 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 the transformation of medical device sales from traditional distribution model to direct sales model in China, including cooperation agreement, service agreement drafting and negotiation, legal structure and corporate governance, anti-monopoly and other legal services

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

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

  • Advised the Huo 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 direct investment in railway and automobile fields in China


Long-term Legal Counsel

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

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

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

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

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for CNOOC (China) Limited 

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for CNOOC (China) Limited Beijing Research Center 

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co., Ltd. 

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for CNOOC International Trade Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for China National Aviation Fuel Group Limited 

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

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for Sinochem Energy Logistics Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as long-term legal counsel for Xinli Energy Development Co., Ltd.

  • Acting as long-term 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