The Republic of Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI; President KANG Jung-keuk) and the Mexican Petroleum Institute (IMP; Director General Jose Enrique Villa Rivera) entered into an MOU for exchange and cooperation in marine science and technology on February 15, 2011.

The MOU will afford KORDI better opportunities not only to make forays into foreign markets to construct and utilize ocean engineering basins, but also to provide consultation on how to establish platform technology for such basins and how to operate them in the process of transferring KORDI’s know-how in ocean engineering basin construction. It is also expected to clear the way for more active cooperation in marine science research with South America and Central America as there will be more joint research and symposiums.

Furthermore, KORDI’s cooperation with a research institute of state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, which is believed to be the world’s tenth largest petroleum company, is expected to open doors wider for Republic of Korea’s marine industries including shipbuilding to the Mexican market along with better access to the petroleum industry of Mexico, which boasts huge petroleum reserves.

For this MOU, President KANG Jung-keuk of KORDI surveyed offshore plant facilities in the Gulf of Mexico in person. “Republic of Korea’s offshore plant technology is top rate, but it is true that our growth has been driven mainly by advancement in construction technology,” says President KANG, highlighting, “The MOU is even more meaningful in that it marks a turning point for us to develop with focus on design engineering technology in the future.”

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), was founded in 1965 as a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. It is based in Mexico City, Mexico and is engaged in petrochemical and gas development with about 138,000 employees. It earned 198 billion USD in 2006. The CEO is Jesus Reyes Heroles.

The Instituto Mexicano Del Petroleo, or IMP (English: The Mexican Petroleum Institute), located in Mexico City, was founded back on August 23, 1965 and runs on an annual budget of about 285 million USD with around 4,000 employees. Its foundational purposes include training people for basic and applied research in petroleum and for the petrochemical industry and also helping develop clean energy technologies and explore the Gulf coastal sea.