Overview
Ming Lei advises clients on domestic and international merger, divestitures and acquisitions, joint venture, private equity investments, project finance and development and complex commercial contracts in all aspects of the energy and infrastructure business, including marine terminalling and storage, oil and gas exploration, oilfield services, midstream pipeline, refinery and petrochemical and renewable and energy transition.
Ming also routinely advises Chinese companies with respect to their investments, corporate governance, disputes resolution and regulatory compliance matters in the US.
Results
Pipelines and Other Midstream Business
- Represented Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in its $3.6+ billion acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Oryx Southern Delaware Holdings LLC and Oryx Delaware Holdings LLC, which comprises of, among others, crude oil gathering and transportation system with approximately 1,200 miles of in-service and under-construction pipeline that across the core of the Delaware Basin*
- Represented Ridgemont Equity Partners in its joint venture investment with Denham Capital Management and the Ontario Power Generation Inc. Pension Plan to back WhiteWater Midstream, MPLX LP and West Texas Gas, Inc. to provide natural gas liquids takeaway capacity from MPLX and WTG gas processing plants in the Permian Basin to the natural gas liquids fractionation hub in Sweeny, TX*
- Represented UBS Investment Bank, as financial advisor to NuStar Energy, in its $1.5+ billion acquisition of Navigator Energy Services, LLC which owns crude oil transportation, pipeline gathering and storage assets in the Midland Basin*
- Represented Stakeholder Midstream, a portfolio company of EnCap Flatrock Midstream, in its acquisition of certain midstream gas gathering and processing assets in Yoakum County, Texas from Santa Fe Midstream*
- Represented Harvest Midstream Company, an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy, in its $200+ million acquisition of certain crude pipelines and related assets from a public interstate pipeline company*
- Represented a private company in its acquisition of a natural gas and liquids gathering and transportation business in North Texas through the acquisition of the equity interests of the seller’s subsidiaries holding these assets*
- Represented a private E&P company in the acquisition of South Louisiana crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system from publicly held energy company*
- Represented QEP Resources in the conveyance of a gas gathering system and oil terminal in the Permian Basin to its midstream affiliates and the drafting and negotiation of the related gas gathering agreement and oil terminal services agreement*
- Represented a public company in negotiating a long term ethane supply and sale agreement for certain petrochemical facilities*
- Represented a public company in negotiating a long term produced water gathering and disposal services agreement*
- Represented a private company in negotiating a long term natural gas liquids raw product sale agreement, and associated natural gas marketing services agreement and wellhead nomination and scheduling agreement*
Marine Terminal and Logistics Business
- Represented Royal Vopak and BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund in the formation of a joint venture, Vopak Industrial Infrastructure Americas, LLC, and then in VIIA’s subsequent purchase of three of The Dow Chemical Company’s chemical storage terminals located at Plaquemine and St. Charles, Louisiana and Freeport, Texas for $620+ million, as well as its long-term services agreements with Dow for terminalling, storage and infrastructure services that were entered into at closing*
- Represented a private marine terminal owner and operator of its terminalling and storage facilities in connection with its marine terminal services agreements and throughput agreements with various customers at the terminal, and related day-to-day transactional and corporate matters*
- Represented Arrowhead Gulf Coast, an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy, in developing its terminal services agreement and related ancillary agreements in connection with its crude terminal facilities located near Cocodrie, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana*
- Represented the Conflicts Committee of the Board of Directors of Tesoro Logistics GP, LLC in connection with the acquisition by Tesoro Logistics LP from Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company LLC and its affiliates of certain storage facilities and a marine terminal facility located at Martinez, California*
- Represented the Conflicts Committee of the General Partner of Andeavor Logistics LP in connection with its acquisition from certain of its affiliates of certain storage facilities, a rail terminal facility and related pipeline and ancillary assets located at Anacortes, Washington*
- Represented the Conflicts Committee of the General Partner of Enviva Partners, LP in its acquisition from a joint venture between Enviva Partners, LP’s sponsor and affiliates of John Hancock Life Insurance of Enviva Port of Wilmington, LLC, which owns a fully operational deep-water marine terminal and logistics business in Wilmington, North Carolina*
- Represented a private midstream company in negotiating a terminal services agreement with an E&P company in connection with the receipt, short term storage, terminalling, and barge loading services for crude oil at its marine terminal located at Plaquemines, Louisiana*
Oil and Gas Upstream Assets
- Represented Hilcorp Energy in its $2.7+ billion acquisition of oil and gas properties in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico from ConocoPhillips*
- Represented GSO Capital Partners, as a financial partner with Sanchez Energy, in the structuring of their joint venture in connection with the purchase by Sanchez and Blackstone of oil and gas properties in the Eagle Ford Shale from Anadarko for $2.3+ billion*
- Represented FourPoint Energy in its $200+ million acquisition of Anadarko Basin oil and gas properties from a private E&P company*
- Represented FourPoint Energy in its $385+ million acquisition of Andarko Basin oil and gas properties from Chesapeake*
- Represented Tokyo Gas America in its 30% strategic equity investment into Castleton Resources LLC, a subsidiary of Castleton Commodities International LLC which owns upstream and midstream assets in East Texas and Louisiana*
- Represented Tokyo Gas America in its acquisition of a 25% stake in certain Eagle Ford shale gas formation from VirTex*
- Represented LOGOS Resources, a portfolio company of ArcLight, in its acquisition of legacy gas properties and undeveloped Mancos acreage located in the San Juan Basin from WPX Energy, which included approximately 900 producing wells and over 200 potential horizontal gas drilling locations across approximately 134,000 net acres*
- Represented LongPoint Minerals, an affiliate of FourPoint Energy, in drafting and developing a set of form purchase agreements for mineral interests acquisitions*
- Represented a large independent company in an asset exchange transaction with respect to certain acreage in New Mexico and Texas with a major public oil and gas company*
- Represented a large independent oil and gas company in its sale of oil and gas properties in West Oklahoma in consideration of a combination of $60 million and certain acreage*
- Represented a PE backed private E&P company in its $130+ million acquisition of an overriding royalty interest in West Texas acreage*
- Represented a large independent oil and gas company in its $100+ million sale of Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas properties*
- Represented Evolve Transition Infrastructure LP in its sale of wellbores and other associated assets located in Gonzales, DeWitt, Dimmit and Zavala Counties in South Texas*
Capital Markets and Private Equity Investments
- Represented the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Pure Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, in connection with its initial business combination pursuant to which Pure effected a merger resulting in a newly formed and publicly traded company, HighPeak Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: HPK), with an estimated enterprise value of $845 million*
- Represented a private company in both its equity and debt financing of $285+ million with HPS Investment Partners in connection with its exploration and development activities in the Midland Basin*
- Represented FourPoint Energy in a $500+ million equity capital raise from Quantum Energy Partners and other then-existing equity holders in connection with its acquisition of certain strategic upstream and midstream assets in the Anadarko Basin*
- Represented the underwriters in a $90+ million equity offering by Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. in connection with oil and gas related matters in the offering*
- Represented Citi etc. as the underwriters in the initial public offering of Jagged Peak Energy, in connection with oil and gas related matters in the offering*
Electrical Power Infrastructure
- Represented RES America in its disposition of a wind energy generation project located in McCulloch County, Texas through the sale of 100% membership interests of the project company*
- Represented Duke Energy in its sale of a minority interest in its commercial renewable energy portfolio totaled 1.2 gigawatts of wind, solar and battery storage asset, to John Hancock for $400+ million*
- Represented a private company in its acquisition of a wind powered electric generating project located in Oklahoma*
- Represented a private company in its acquisition of a clean coal gasification plant and related assets located in Indiana*
- Represented a major global energy company in an extensive internal review and summary of all project documents and commercial agreements relating to the company’s entire wind energy project portfolio in the United States, including wind energy projects in Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas*
- Represented a private company in the formation of a joint venture in developing and operating gas turbine power plants in South and East Texas*
Oilfield Services and Other Services
- Represented ProPetro Holding Corp. in connection with its $400 million acquisition of the pressure pumping assets of Pioneer Resources*
- Represented Entrec as its U.S. counsel in its disposition of certain oil field services assets, in connection with its bankruptcy in Canada and related Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the US*
- Represented a court-appointed receiver in its disposition of certain oil field services equipment of a private company in connection with the receivership proceedings*
- Represented a private E&P company in negotiating master services agreements with various service providers*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.
Recognitions
- Legal 500, Industry Focus: Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas, 2021
Community
- Institute for Energy Law (IEL) Leadership Class, 2022 to present
- Asian American Bar Association of Houston, Corporate Counsel Committee, co-chair, 2020 to 2021
Credentials
Education
Duke University School of Law, JD, 2015
Wuhan University, BA, 2011
Admissions
Texas
China (non-active)
New York
Languages
English
Mandarin