Pemex and BP have confirmed an agreement in which the latter will share with the Mexican state-owned operator the technical information it used to build its global deepwater well-capping equipment.

Under the technology license agreement, BP will make available information that Pemex E&P – one of four subsidiaries of PEMEX – can use, in addition to initiatives that Pemex E&P already has in place, if it decides to build and maintain its own well-capping system for use in its sector of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The Mexican major has recently made two ultra-deepwater discoveries in its GoM waters.

In addition, BP has agreed to conduct workshops in Houston to brief Pemex E&P on the technical information and operational aspects of the system, as well as to introduce Pemex E&P specialists to key vendors and fabricators that BP used to develop its global deepwater well cap and tooling package.

BP’s global deepwater well cap is a 100-ton stack of valves that can be lowered onto a leaking well to halt the flow. The system can operate in 3,048 m (10,000 ft) of water and is rated to pressures of 15,000 psi. Stored in Houston, it can be sent by heavy-lift aircraft to any country where BP operates within days.

Under the agreement, BP will share at no cost to Pemex technical information on its capping stack, and Pemex has agreed to make any future advancements to this well-capping technology available at no cost to BP (which will retain the intellectual property rights, so it can continue to share the plans with others).