Los Angeles CA
2-13-2023 1:03am

About the Helium Shortage Deflating Valentine Balloons

The USGS is soliciting input from the public, including domestic helium users, to aid the USGS in analyzing whether there is an increasing risk of helium-supply disruption.

If you attempted to purchase a helium filled balloon this week if was probably very difficult, unless you went to Dollar Tree stores. There is no explanation why this retailer had an ample supply but a search online about helium shortages (there was one widely publicized few years ago) brings attention to a request for public input concerning helium!

"The global shift from conventional natural gas toward shale gas, which lacks recoverable quantities of helium, has the potential to reduce the supply of helium." Federal Register : Request for Comments on Helium Supply Risk

Global demand is around 30,000 tonnes of helium per year and is used in a whole host of applications from MRI scanners and welding technologies to leak detection in gas pipelines and, yes, party balloons. Scientists unearth one of world’s largest helium gas deposits | News | Chemistry World

Aside from our happiness from a balloon for a special occasion there is a very present and important use for helium, including:

  • Magnetic resonance imaging
  • Lifting gas - (BALLOONS - including the infamous & growing "spy balloons"
  • Analytical and laboratory applications
  • Electronics and semiconductor manufacturing
  • Welding, engineering and scientific applications

Helium Production Mineral commodity summaries 2020 (usgs.gov) & Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 - Helium (usgs.gov)

United States

  • Is the world's leading helium producer 77 million cubic meters annually
  • consumes 40 million cubic meters annually
  • Is a net exporter of helium
  • Recycling: In the United States, helium used in large-volume applications is seldom recycled. Some low-volume or liquid boil-off recovery systems are used. In the rest of the world, helium recycling is practiced more often.
  • 2021
    • 15 plants extracting helium from natural gas & produced crude helium
    • 2 plants extracting helium from natural gas & produced Grade A helium
    • 3 plants purified helium from other sources to produce Grade A helium

Outside the United States - five countries have technical capacity to increase their production:

  • Qatar - 2.6 billion cubic feet per year production estimated for 20221
  • Algeria - 8.5 billion cubic meters reserve as of 2021
  • Canada - Saskatchewan is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that can support the drilling of dedicated helium wells, rather than as a byproduct of hydrocarbon production
  • Russia- The first of three 20-million-cubic-meter-per-year trains started production in fall 2021; a 60-million-cubic-meter-per-year helium-processing plant was commissioned in 2022.
  • Tanzania - Scientists unearth one of world’s largest helium gas deposits | News | Chemistry World

Prices for helium have risen by more than 160% from 2017 to 2021.

This document has a comment period that ends in 33 days. (03/16/2023)

In light of recent geopolitical events and concurrent with the return of primary helium data-collection responsibility from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the USGS is soliciting input from the public, including domestic helium users, that will aid the USGS in analyzing whether:

  • There is an increasing risk of helium-supply disruption;
  • That risk stems from supply from countries that may be unwilling or unable to continue to supply the United States,
  • Those risks pose a significant likelihood of increasing the Nation's import reliance or create a concentration and risk of permanent or intermittent supply disruptions from a small number of international or domestic supply sources
  • Potential disruptions to helium supply due to foreign geopolitical uncertainty, military conflict, civil unrest, or anti-competitive behaviors, and
  • Such supply disruption would jeopardize manufacturing or use of products vital to the defense, healthcare, aerospace, consumer electronics, and other industries.

Federal Register :: Request for Comments on Helium Supply Risk

You may submit written comments online at http://www.regulations.gov by entering “DOI-2022-0012” in the Search bar and clicking “Search,” or by mail to Request for comments on Helium Supply Risk, MS-102, U.S. Geological Survey, 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, Reston, VA 20192.

 Nearly all helium used in China ” whether to pump fuel for its huge Long March-5 rocket, to protect metal during welding, to produce laser light, or to create the super-clean environment needed to make computer chips ” comes from elsewhere, mostly the United States or US-owned facilities in other countries."  

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