We provide services primarily in deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, North Sea, Asia Pacific and West Africa regions. We have expanded our service capabilities to shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico with the Alliance acquisition on July 1, 2022 (Note 3). Our North Sea operations and our Gulf of Mexico shelf operations related to our Alliance acquisition are subject to seasonal changes in demand, which generally peaks in the summer months and declines in the winter months. Our services are segregated into four reportable business segments: Well Intervention, Robotics, Production Facilities and our new reporting segment, Shallow Water Abandonment, which was formed in the third quarter 2022 comprising the Helix Alliance business (Note 11).
Our Well Intervention segment provides services enabling our customers to safely access offshore wells for the purpose of performing production enhancement or decommissioning operations, thereby avoiding drilling new wells by extending the useful lives of existing wells and preserving the environment by preventing uncontrolled releases of oil and gas. Our well intervention vessels include the Q4000, the Q5000, the Q7000, the Seawell, the Well Enhancer, and two chartered monohull vessels, the Siem Helix 1 and the Siem Helix 2. Our well intervention equipment includes intervention systems such as intervention riser systems (“IRSs”), subsea intervention lubricators (“SILs”) and the Riserless Open-water Abandonment Module, some of which we provide on a stand-alone basis.
Our Robotics segment provides offshore construction, trenching, seabed clearance, and inspection, repair and maintenance (“IRM”) services to both the oil and gas and the renewable energy markets globally, thereby assisting the delivery of affordable and reliable energy and supporting the responsible transition away from a carbon-based economy. Additionally, our Robotics services are used in and complement our well intervention services. Our Robotics segment mainly includes remotely operated vehicles (“ROVs”), trenchers and robotics support vessels under term charters as well as spot vessels as needed.
Our Production Facilities segment includes the Helix Producer I (the “HP I”), a ship-shaped dynamically positioned floating production vessel, the Helix Fast Response System (the “HFRS”), which combines the HP I, the Q4000 and the Q5000 with certain well control equipment that can be deployed to respond to a well control incident, and our ownership of Droshky oil and gas properties. We also have a 20% ownership interest in Independence Hub, LLC (“Independence Hub”) that we account for using the equity method of accounting. In May 2022, we received a net cash distribution of $7.8 million from the sale of the “Independence Hub” platform owned by Independence Hub. In August 2022, we acquired from MP Gulf of Mexico, LLC (“MP GOM”), a joint venture controlled by Murphy Exploration & Production Company – USA, all of MP GOM’s 62.5% interest in Mississippi Canyon Block 734, comprised of three wells and related subsea infrastructure (collectively known as the Thunder Hawk Field), in exchange for the assumption of MP GOM’s abandonment obligations (Note 12). All of our current Production Facilities activities are located in the Gulf of Mexico.
Our Shallow Water Abandonment segment provides services in support of the upstream and midstream industries in the Gulf of Mexico shelf, including offshore oil field decommissioning and reclamation, project management, engineered solutions, intervention, maintenance, repair, heavy lift and commercial diving services. Our Shallow Water Abandonment segment includes a diversified fleet of marine assets including liftboats, offshore supply vessels (“OSVs”), dive support vessels (“DSVs”), a heavy lift derrick barge, a crew boat, P&A systems, coiled tubing systems and other miscellaneous assets.
Note 3 — Alliance Acquisition
On July 1, 2022, we completed our acquisition of all of the equity interests of Alliance. The Alliance acquisition extends our energy transition strategy by adding shallow-water capabilities into what we expect to be a growing offshore decommissioning market.
The aggregate preliminary purchase price of the Alliance acquisition was $145.7 million, consisting of $119.0 million with cash on hand and the estimated fair value of $26.7 million of contingent consideration related to the post-closing earn-out consideration. The earn-out is payable in 2024 to the seller in the Alliance transaction in either cash or shares of our common stock pursuant to the terms of the Equity Purchase Agreement (the “Equity Purchase Agreement”) dated May 16, 2022 by and among Helix Alliance Decom, LLC, the seller and Helix. The earn-out is not capped and is calculated based on certain financial metrics of the Helix Alliance business for 2022 and 2023 relative to amounts as set forth in the Equity Purchase Agreement.