Overview

Phil Lau is a partner in Mayer Brown's Houston office and a member of the Corporate & Securities practice. His practice centers on energy-related commercial transactions and construction, primarily in the midstream and downstream segments. He has represented US and foreign energy companies in drafting and negotiating crude oil and natural gas gathering agreements; natural gas processing, fractionation and transportation services agreements; natural gas liquids purchase, sale and export agreements; source water supply agreements; produced water disposal agreements, and storage and terminalling agreements for various bulk hydrocarbon products.

Phil has also worked on engineering, procurement and construction contracts for natural gas pipelines and processing plants, chemical production facilities and storage terminals. Finally, he has represented both buyers and sellers in the acquisition and divestiture of crude oil, natural gas and produced water midstream assets and has worked on the development of greenfield and brownfield energy projects, including pipelines and export terminals.

Areas of Focus

Practices
Industries

Spoken Languages

  • Cantonese
  • English
  • Mandarin

Experience

  • Represented NFE Biofuels in drafting and negotiation of biodiesel production, storage and terminalling agreements in Houston ship channel.
  • Represented Targa Resources  in drafting and negotiation of multiple NGL pipeline operations and maintenance agreements for pipelines in Texas.
  • Represented Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy in drafting and negotiating EPC contracts for an injection station and pipeline in Mont Belvieu area.
  • Represented NET Midstream in the drafting and negotiation of EPC agreements for multiple natural gas pipelines in the Eagle Ford Shale.
  • Represented a private equity-backed midstream company in drafting and negotiation of commercial agreements for natural gas pipeline and processing facilities in Permian Basin.
  • Represented Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy in acquisition of West Texas natural gas liquids pipeline.
  • Represented Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy in acquisition of a Louisiana natural gas liquids pipeline.
  • Represented Castleton Commodities International in negotiation of processing agreements for condensate splitters in the Texas Gulf Coast.
  • Prepared forms of construction agreements for BPX Energy, the US affiliate of BP.
  • Represented U.S. private equity-backed midstream companies in drafting and negotiation of multiple water services contracts for source water supply and produced water disposal assets in the Permian Basin.
  • Represented Blue Mountain Midstream in drafting and negotiation of multiple produced water gathering and disposal agreements in the SCOOP/STACK play in Oklahoma.
  • Represented Shell Oil in negotiation of construction and procurement documentation for refinery expansion in Port Arthur.
  • Represented Zenith Terminals in multiple hydrocarbon terminalling services agreement for crude oil and related hydrocarbon products in North America.
  • Represented Bayer/Monsanto in construction of fertilizer manufacturing facility in Luling, Louisiana.
  • Represented Satellite Petrochemical USA Corp. the US affiliate of a PRC based petrochemicals conglomerate in negotiating agreements for the transportation and export of ethane from Nederland, Texas.
  • Represented Pyramax Ceramics in the drafting and negotiation of EPC agreement for a proppant production facility in Georgia.
  • Represented Targa Resources Corporation in drafting and negotiation of multiple NGL terminalling, transportation, storage and export agreements.
  • Represented a US midstream company in its bid to acquire gas gathering assets in the Marcellus Shale.
  • Prepared form construction services agreements for Kinder Morgan’s construction group.
  • Represented Targa Resources Corporation in the acquisition of fuel oil storage facilities in Channelview, Texas.
  • Represented Enterprise Products in drafting and negotiation of gas processing agreement for facilities in the Piceance Basin, Colorado.
  • Represented Lagoon Midstream in drafting and negotiation of multiple produced water gathering and disposal agreements in the SCOOP/STACK play in Oklahoma.
  • Represented an international energy company in drafting and negotiation of industrial gas supply agreement for refinery expansion in Port Arthur.
  • Represented a Kawasaki Gas Turbines Americas in sale of gas turbines to several US-based power generation facilities, and negotiation of related long-term services agreements.
  • Represented the International Finance Corporation in drafting and negotiation of various financing and security documents in connection with limited-recourse financing of 56 MW combined cycle power plant in Senegal.
  • Represented a Texas-based energy company in drafting and negotiation of engineering, procurement and construction contract for PDH facility in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
  • Represented affiliate of Trafigura Trading LLC in connection with the acquisition of a coal terminal in Louisiana.
  • Represented Targa Resources Corporation in drafting and negotiation of gathering and transportation agreements for crude oil production in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota.
  • Represented a publicly traded energy company in the drafting and negotiation of natural gas gathering agreements in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.
  • Represented a US affiliate of South American energy company in the drafting and negotiation of LPG feed gas purchase and sale agreement and related processing agreements.
  • Represented a publicly traded energy company in the drafting and negotiation of natural gas gathering and fractionation agreements for Eagle Ford Shale production.
  • Represented Kinder Morgan in drafting and negotiation of terminal services agreement for proposed methanol terminal in Louisiana.
  • Represented privately held Louisiana construction company in connection with the design and construction of electrical interconnects for power stations in Texas and Mississippi.

Perspectives

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Events

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Education

Georgetown University Law Center, JD

University of Notre Dame, BA, with highest honors
Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • Pennsylvania
  • Texas

Court

  • US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Activities

  • Past Member, Board of Directors, Asian American Bar Association, Houston
  • Past Member, Board of Directors, Western Academy
  • Member, Advisory Board, Business Ethics Forum