Company Overview	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2012
Company Overview [Abstract]
Company Overview	Note 2 – Company Overview We are an international offshore energy company that provides development solutions and other contracting services to the energy market as well as to our own oil and gas properties. Our Contracting Services segment utilizes our vessels, offshore equipment and proprietary technologies to deliver services that may reduce finding and development costs and cover the complete lifecycle of an offshore oil and gas field. Our Contracting Services are located primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. Our Oil and Gas segment engages in prospect generation, exploration, development and production activities. Our oil and gas operations are located in the Gulf of Mexico. Contracting Services Operations We seek to provide services and methodologies which we believe are critical to developing offshore reservoirs and maximizing production economics. Our “life of field” services are segregated into four disciplines: well operations, robotics, subsea construction and production facilities. We have disaggregated our contracting services operations into two reportable segments: Contracting Services and Production Facilities. Our Contracting Services business primarily includes well operations, robotics and subsea construction activities. Our Production Facilities business includes our equity investments in Deepwater Gateway, L.L.C. (“Deepwater Gateway”) and Independence Hub, LLC (“Independence Hub”), as well as our majority ownership of the Helix Producer I (“HP I”) vessel. It also includes the Helix Fast Response System (“HFRS”), which includes our Q4000 and HP I vessels. In 2011, we signed an agreement with Clean Gulf Associates ("CGA"), a non-profit industry group, allowing, in exchange for a retainer fee, the HFRS to be named as a response resource in permit applications to federal and state agencies, and making the HFRS available for a two-year term to certain CGA participants who have executed utilization agreements with us. In addition to the agreement with CGA, we currently have signed separate utilization agreements with 24 CGA participant member companies specifying the day rates to be charged should the HFRS be deployed in connection with a well control incident. The retainer fee for the HFRS became effective April 1, 2011. Oil and Gas Operations We began our oil and gas operations to achieve incremental returns, to expand our off-season utilization of our contracting services assets, and to provide a more efficient solution to offshore abandonment. We have evolved this business model to include not only mature oil and gas properties but also unproved and proved reserves yet to be explored and developed. This has led to the assembly of services that allows us to create value throughout the complete cycle of a reservoir, including exploration through development and managing and operating a field’s production up to and through the field’s eventual abandonment.

We are an international offshore energy company that provides development solutions and other contracting services to the energy market as well as to our own oil and gas properties. Our Contracting Services segment utilizes our vessels, offshore equipment and proprietary technologies to deliver services that may reduce finding and development costs and cover the complete lifecycle of an offshore oil and gas field. Our Contracting Services are located primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. Our Oil and Gas segment engages in prospect generation, exploration, development and production activities. Our oil and gas operations are located in the Gulf of Mexico.

Contracting Services Operations

We seek to provide services and methodologies which we believe are critical to developing offshore reservoirs and maximizing production economics. Our “life of field” services are segregated into four disciplines: well operations, robotics, subsea construction and production facilities. We have disaggregated our contracting services operations into two reportable segments: Contracting Services and Production Facilities. Our Contracting Services business primarily includes well operations, robotics and subsea construction activities. Our Production Facilities business includes our equity investments in Deepwater Gateway, L.L.C. (“Deepwater Gateway”) and Independence Hub, LLC (“Independence Hub”), as well as our majority ownership of the Helix Producer I (“HP I”) vessel. It also includes the Helix Fast Response System (“HFRS”), which includes our Q4000 and HP I vessels. In 2011, we signed an agreement with Clean Gulf Associates ("CGA"), a non-profit industry group, allowing, in exchange for a retainer fee, the HFRS to be named as a response resource in permit applications to federal and state agencies, and making the HFRS available for a two-year term to certain CGA participants who have executed utilization agreements with us. In addition to the agreement with CGA, we currently have signed separate utilization agreements with 24 CGA participant member companies specifying the day rates to be charged should the HFRS be deployed in connection with a well control incident. The retainer fee for the HFRS became effective April 1, 2011.

Oil and Gas Operations

We began our oil and gas operations to achieve incremental returns, to expand our off-season utilization of our contracting services assets, and to provide a more efficient solution to offshore abandonment. We have evolved this business model to include not only mature oil and gas properties but also unproved and proved reserves yet to be explored and developed. This has led to the assembly of services that allows us to create value throughout the complete cycle of a reservoir, including exploration through development and managing and operating a field’s production up to and through the field’s eventual abandonment.