I think that’s just, the exponential growth curves of the wind market I’ve never been a believer in, but I do believe that, it’s long-term growth and sustainable. There are other areas in the wind farm market, where I think we could deploy capital to add to what we’re already doing. Finally in the shallow water market, depending on which — we’re the only ones that have all five asset classes that are required to do Shallow Water Abandonment in the Gulf of Mexico. Depending on which asset class you look at, we own between one-third and two-thirds of all the assets. There are areas where we could add to that, but the pricing expectations again were a little blue sky after such a robust year of 2023. I don’t really see the pullback in 2024, as being necessarily a bad thing.
If you’re wanting to add capacity in that market, it could inject some rational thought among some of the sellers.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Your next question comes from the line of James Schumm with TD Cowen.
James Schumm: Thanks for letting me back in. Just maybe following up on the vessel strategy. Owen, are there any cold-stacked semi subs that might be of interest to you at a good price? What are the thoughts around what a potential retrofit would be or like what are the economics there?
Owen Kratz: I don’t think that, we’re right now engaged looking at the cold stacked fleet. It’s been cold stacked for so long that the retrofit numbers, just don’t make much commercial sense. I think there are a few assets in the marketplace and very few, but there are a few that have existing assets that are working that could be of interest.
James Schumm: I was wondering if you guys could give some directional comments on the cadence of earnings from 2Q, 3Q, 4Q. I think in the third quarter, you’re going to transit the Q4000 and the Q7000. Just the way your accounting works, I’m wondering if Q3 is sort of unusually low and Q4 is unusually high this year? Or how should we think about that?
Erik Staffeldt: Yes. I think the mix still is, Jim, second quarter and third quarter are going to be our strongest months. You do identify that, in the third quarter, we are going to have some unusual items that will impact that quarter that will probably make it lower than what would otherwise be, if we weren’t deferring the mobilizations. But still, the second and third quarter are our strongest quarters.
James Schumm: Okay, great. Thanks, Erik. And then just last one, the Siem Helix 2 — go ahead.
Owen Kratz: Yes, just to be clear that’s deferring the accounting treatment of not deferring the mobilization.
James Schumm: The Siem Helix 2 is contracted until December. There has been some reports maybe that you were the lowest bidder on some incremental work for Petrobras in Brazil. What are your expectations there? When do you think we will get an update on that vessel?
Owen Kratz: When? You’ll be the first to know when we know. Petrobras has a very peculiar tendering style. Just to lay out the facts for you, there’s basically one tender for two riser vessels that they issued and another tender for a riser-less vessel that was issued. The way the Petrobras process works is that, you submit your commercial terms, the lowest bidders then are asked to negotiate then the contract. Where the process stands right now is that, we were the low bidder on the two riser vessels as well as the riserless vessel. We have been invited to start negotiating the first of the riserless vessels, which is the SH 2 mentioned in our written presentation. The recent announcement of the riserless vessel is very, very fresh off the press.
We were not only the low bidder; we were the only bidder. Quite honestly, we don’t know where Petrobras is going to go with that. That tells you exactly where we are in the process. They take everything very sequentially and are process driven, but they don’t put any times on it. That’s the best I can share with you for now.
Don Crist: Is there a point in time in the year, where you would look to contract the vessel outside of Petrobras? I mean, keeping it in Brazil, but I mean…
Owen Kratz: I think Petrobras in Brazil is a strategically very important market for us. I think it’s the most robust oil and gas market in the world and it’s also got a up and coming shallow water abandonment market as well as a potential future offshore wind market. It’s a very important market strategically. Having said that, depending on the rates, we will contract the vessel to anywhere or anyone that represents greater value to the shareholders.
Don Crist: And then, sorry, last one for me. You’ve got I think you said $240 million of cash after you pay the earn-out. That’s a lot of cash. You’re only doing $5 million of share repo a quarter, which seems very low, given, if you believe your stock is worth more than it is right now, why not get more aggressive with the share repo? Does it have something to do with the fact that, maybe you’re keeping your options open for additional vessels for Well Intervention or something else?
Owen Kratz: I wouldn’t say that, the main driver is keeping options open. Our options are always open and being considered. I think the fact that, we’ve underperformed on the number of share repurchases to date is just a reflection of the fact that, we’ve actually outperformed our expectations, as compared to where we thought we would be at this point.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Erik Staffeldt for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Erik Staffeldt: Thanks for joining us today. We very much appreciate your interest and participation and look forward to having you on our second quarter 2024 call in July. Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect your lines.
