Where Has All the Helium Gone?

When rumors started floating around that helium was getting scare, the average person was skeptical. How can you run out of air? Of course, the average person might have no idea exactly what helium is, where it comes from, or of its uses beyond cheerful balloon bouquets and squeaky party voices.

But recently, a frantic, pre-birthday phone survey of my hometown florists brought the truth crashing down to my own average understanding: It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, because there wasn’t a helium-filled balloon to be found.

The rumors were true. There IS a helium shortage.

And it’s not only balloon-lovers who are feeling deflated. Helium is used in everything from MRI scanners, particle colliders, scuba gear, rockets, cryogenics, fiber optics and LCD production. During the shortage, suppliers are serving hospitals and industrial clients first, leaving the party industry flat for helium sales.

So, what happened to all the helium? Despite the levity, it’s a good question.

Helium in the United States is managed by the Federal Helium Program of the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. Started in 1925, its original purpose was to ensure plenty of helium for wartime defense. The now-defunct Bureau of Mines built the Amarillo Helium Plant for helium extraction, purification and storage in Texas and, from 1929 to 1960, the federal government was the only domestic producer of helium.

In 1996, President Clinton signed the Helium Privatization Act to sell all of the helium surplus to help pay off the original investment in building up the reserve. The law stipulated that the helium must be sold by 2015, regardless of the global demand or price. Until as recently as 2010, the bureau has sold helium at cost — not at open market value.

The effect of dumping, what appeared to be, an endless supply of helium into the open market made prices plummet. Cheap helium encouraged waste and discouraged research for alternative sources to this limited natural resource. Scientists like Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Robert Richardson predicted that, at the current rate, helium would be exhausted within 30 years or so.

There is some uplifting helium news for 2012.

According to a release by the Gases and Welding Distributors Association, a new privately-owned plant is scheduled to come on line this year in the U.S. The Air Products and Matheson plant in Wyoming will introduce an additional 200 million standard cubic feet per year of helium.

Also, the Bureau of Land Management announced that they are revising prices for crude helium during its 2012 Open Market Sale. The new pricing is in response to a 2010 National Academy of Sciences report, “Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve” that suggested selling crude helium at market price rather than at the legislated minimum could, “enable more rapid retirement of BLM facilities debt to the US Treasury – a central goal of the 1996 Act.

But helium is not a renewable resource and experts do not foresee a return to the glory days of cheap helium. So, consumers can expect helium to remain scarce and balloon prices to go sky high.