Energy expert Yang Tao returns from Norway to China University of Petroleum

In a ceremony on June 13, university president Jin Yan handed a letter of appointment to Yang Tao, a member of both the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, for a position at the Chinese institution where he had first earned his chemical engineering degrees.

Yang was chief professional and senior specialist at Equinor, Norway’s state-controlled energy company, and was the founding co-chair of the World CCUS Council, which covers carbon capture, use and storage.

Yang confirmed the China University of Petroleum appointment on his LinkedIn account: “I see this appointment not as the culmination of a career, but as the beginning of a new mission. I hope to serve as a bridge between China and Europe, promoting deeper cooperation in low-carbon technologies, carbon management, digital energy, hydrogen, bioenergy and emerging sustainable solutions”.

Yang gained his a bachelor of science at the university in 1991 and a PhD in chemical engineering in 1996.

After completing his PhD, he conducted three years of postdoctoral research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

In 1999, he joined Whitson, a reservoir engineering consulting firm, as a technical expert, according to his LinkedIn profile. During his tenure, he provided consulting services to more than 300 oilfields and 30 international companies, focusing on reservoir fluid characterisation, gas injection, carbon dioxide flooding and flow assurance.