Co-recovery of helium from natural gas streams has been the helium sourcing paradigm since the 1970s and the countries with the largest helium reserves are Qatar, US, Algeria, Russia and Australia. Armed conflict, international tensions, depleting reserves and planned or unplanned outages in these key locations have influenced the global helium supply and demand balance dramatically.
The concentration of helium in natural gas streams, where its recovery is commercially viable, is typically between 0.2-2%. This makes helium production costly and complex which is sometimes an unwelcome distraction from the core activity of natural gas processing. This means that planned maintenance shutdowns are timed around the needs of the gas processing machinery and gas market prices. These cycles do not necessarily reflect the need to balance the global helium supply and demand.
Over the past three decades, the US has been both the largest producer and consumer of helium. However, US reserves are dwindling, production is falling and imports are growing. The international dynamics of helium sourcing are at a pivotal point. Excessive tension in the supply chain is frequent and four major global shortages have disrupted the industry since 2005.
A phoenix will rise from the ashes
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