Peak Helium
Is the Helium industry a preview of the Oil industry?
The second most plentiful element in the universe is suddenly in short supply on this planet…
The Chicago Tribune says the U.S. is the number one source for Helium. One third of the world’s supply comes from Texas. During WWI, we stockpiled the gas in underground reservoirs in the Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas and now those reserves, at present production rates, will be depleted in 10 years.
It (Helium) is locked largely in natural-gas deposits and typically found only at trace levels too expensive to strip out and refine.By a quirk of geology, however, some natural-gas fields in this country are blessed with robust helium concentrations. And that has made the U.S. to helium production what Saudi Arabia is to oil.
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A standard tank with enough helium to fill 400 average-size balloons cost $40 five years ago but $88 today, Kaufman said. And he’s been told to expect another 50 percent price hike before Christmas.
Helium is a byproduct of natural gas production. Not only must there be a high level of crude Helium to extract, but the LNGs and NGLs must invest the money needed, thus the day of reckoning for world supplies may be coming faster than for oil or other nonrenewable commodities.
The Linde Group, a smaller Helium producer, recently purchased BOC’s Helium productiion sources and has become a major player along with Taiyo Nippon Sanso who purchased parts of spun off parts of BOC.
Besides balloons for parties, Helium is used for the Goodyear Blimps,
it is ideal for cooling metals that produce superconductivity or in processes that throw off a lot of heat. It is used to make flat-panel TVs, semiconductors, optical fibers and medical MRIs, and it toughens industrial welds. NASA uses a full train-car load to pressurize a liquid fuel rocket.
[…] January of 2008 in Peak Helium I posted about a coming shortage of Helium. here we are two and half years later it’s once […]