As of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company’s property and equipment, net consisted of the following (in thousands):


	March 31, 2023			December 31, 2022
Vessels	$	2,234,342		$	2,225,123
Buoy and pipeline		15,253			17,130
Finance lease right-of-use assets		303,510			40,007
Other equipment		17,015			17,469
Assets in progress		80,139			77,983
Less accumulated depreciation		(944,014	)		(922,029	)
Property and equipment, net	$	1,706,245		$	1,455,683

For the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, depreciation expense was $24.4 million and $23.2 million, respectively.

In March 2023, we exercised our option to purchase the FSRU Sequoia for a purchase price of $265 million (the “Sequoia Purchase”), which at March 31, 2023, was under a bareboat charter with a third party. We closed the Sequoia Purchase in April 2023 using proceeds from the Term Loan Facility and cash on hand. As our acquisition of Sequoia was reasonably certain upon closing of the EE Facilities, the lease on the vessel was reclassified from an operating lease to a financing lease and resulted in a $263.5 million increase in Finance lease right-of-use assets on our March 31, 2023 Balance Sheet in Property and equipment.

As part of the IPO Transaction, in exchange for (i) 7,854,167 shares of Class A Common Stock with a fair market value (based on the IPO price) of $188.5 million, (ii) a cash payment of $50.0 million and (iii) $21.5 million of estimated future payments under the TRA, EELP purchased from Maya Maritime LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Foundation, all of the issued and outstanding membership interests in the Foundation Vessels. The acquisition of both the Excelsior and the Excellence vessels were accounted for as asset acquisitions in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 805, Business Combinations. In accordance with ASC 805, the accumulated cost of the vessel acquisitions, including Class A Common Stock and contingent consideration related to the TRA, were allocated to the assets acquired based on relative fair value. In 2018, EELP entered into an agreement with a customer to lease the Excellence vessel with the vessel transferring ownership to the customer at the conclusion of the agreement for no additional consideration. Historically, EELP, as a lessor, had accounted for the Excellence vessel contract with our customer as a sales-type lease in the consolidated balance sheet in accordance with ASC 842, Leases. The Excellence vessel continues to be accounted for as a sales-type lease and thus did not result in an adjustment to property and equipment.