Helium shortage6/11/2023 However, it is the second most available element in outer space. 00005 percent of the atmosphere here on earth. There are plants in Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma.īut Indiana University PhD candidate Andrew Storey says those resources could eventually be depleted. It’s a byproduct of natural gas production, and the United States is the largest producer of Helium in the world. Helium is a non-renewable resource that’s only found in a few locations throughout the world. Who would have thought a simple balloon would be a luxury item?” “Prices have gone up astronomical(ly),” she says. She estimates they’re paying five or six times as much for tanks of helium than they were ten years ago. In the past few years, however, the number of people buying balloons has dropped and Pamela Ladd says business has slowed. She wanted a job that would bring people joy, and balloons seem to do the trick. Their company, Blast Off Balloons, in Bloomington, has filled a lot of orders for Indiana University graduations since Pamela Ladd started the business in the 1970s. It’s also affecting business owners like Norm and Pamela Ladd. That’s causing prices to climb and researchers to worry. Geological Survey reports demand for helium has increased. It does not store any personal data.Helium - an element that plays a critical role in science and medicine - is becoming more and more difficult to find.Īt the same time, the U.S. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In addition to the lack of production from Amur, helium supply has been negatively impacted by another extended outage of the CHEU that lasted from mid-January through to mid-June, planned maintenance outages that reduced output from Qatar during the first quarter (Q1), reduced output from Algeria due to the war in Ukraine, and a fire at a natural gas processing plant in Haven, Kansas. While the helium plant was down, the gas processing plants that provide feedgas to the plant experienced a fire and an explosion that knocked the Amur out of commission for what is expected to be the entirety of 2022. At full capacity, with three trains each running close to their 750 million standard cubic feet (MMSCF) annual capacity, the Amur Project has the potential to increase global helium supply by roughly one-third.Īfter a brief start-up in September 2021, the plant was taken down according to plan to complete construction. While the severity of the shortage probably peaked in the first half of 2022, the shortage has persisted for the last 15 months and there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to when Helium Shortage 4.0 will finally come to an end.Īs most people who follow the helium market know, 2022 was expected to be a year of transition from tight helium supply to ample supply, due to the start of production from Gazprom’s huge Amur Project. Helium Shortage 4.0 began on 1st July 2021 when a four-month maintenance outage of the US Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Crude Helium Enrichment Unit (CHEU) removed more than 10% of worldwide capacity from the market.
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