Related Party Transactions	9 Months Ended
Related Party Transactions	Sep. 30, 2011
Related Party Transactions
Related Party Transactions	Note 13 – Related Party Transactions In April 2000, we acquired a 20% working interest in Gunnison, a deepwater Gulf of Mexico prospect, from a third party. Financing for the exploratory costs of approximately $20 million was provided by an investment partnership (OKCD Investments, Ltd. or "OKCD"), the investors of which include current and former Helix senior management, in exchange for a revenue interest that is an overriding royalty interest of 25% of Helix's 20% working interest. Production began in December 2003. Our payments to OKCD totaled $2.3 million and $7.3 million for the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011, respectively, and $2.7 million and $8.7 million in the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2010, respectively. Our Chief Executive Officer, Owen Kratz, through Class A limited partnership interests in OKCD, personally owns approximately 80.7% of the partnership. In 2000, OKCD also awarded Class B income participations to key Helix employees, who are required to maintain their employment status with Helix in order to retain such income participations.

The entire disclosure for related party transactions, including the nature of the relationship(s), a description of the transactions, the amount of the transactions, the effects of any change in the method of establishing the terms of the transaction from the previous period, stated interest rate, expiration date, terms and manner of settlement per the agreement with the related party, and amounts due to or from related parties. If the entity and one or more other entities are under common ownership or management control and this control affects the operating results or financial position, disclosure includes the nature of the control relationship even if there are no transactions between the entities. Disclosure may also include the aggregate amount of current and deferred tax expense for each statement of earnings presented where the entity is a member of a group that files a consolidated tax return, the amount of any tax related balances due to or from affiliates as of the date of each statement of financial position presented, the principal provisions of the method by which the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense is allocated to the members of the group and the nature and effect of any changes in that method. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.

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+ Details