Congratulations to CryoGas International on reaching the 25th anniversary of publishing its first issue! Throughout its history, CryoGas International has always shown a keen understanding of developments in the helium business and has done an excellent job of keeping its readers informed on helium-related topics affecting their businesses.
Of course, the only constant in the global helium business has been change, and the 25 year period coinciding with the life of CryoGas International has seen a great deal of it. Let’s start at the beginning. What was the helium business like circa 1990?
The helium business was very US-centric in 1990. Approximately 80 percent of the world’s helium production came from a half dozen helium refining facilities that were tied-in to the US Bureau of Mines’ (BOM) Crude Helium Pipeline and Storage System that stretches 425 miles from the Cliffside Field near Amarillo, Texas, through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and then northeast from southwestern Kansas to its terminus in Bushton, Kansas. The US midcontinent area and the Hugoton Field, which provided the helium bearing gas from which this helium was produced, were truly the center of the helium universe. The only significant helium production not linked to the BOM Pipeline came from Exxon’s massive natural gas processing facility located in LaBarge, Wyoming, which initially produced approximately 800 million standard cubic feet (MMscf) per year of liquid helium, or more than 15 percent of then-current world production, beginning in 1986. The only significant commercial helium production from a source outside of the United States came from a plant in Odolanow, Poland that produced less than 100 million scf per year, or 2–3 percent of world production.
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