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Carol Ko, Staff Writer | October 07, 2013
From the October 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
As a result, the private sector hasn’t yet caught up with this demand, meaning helium will continue to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.
After the market price for helium had quadrupled over the past decade and global demand continued to grow at 3 percent per year, it all came to a head around 2006, when the market paradigm shifted from high-priced helium to outright rationing. Heavy consumers of helium such as U.S. national labs were forced to do without the gas for non-essential experiments.
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In the works
To be sure, the private sector has been working on ramping up helium production to meet demand, but many helium suppliers are located in unstable areas of the world that have strained relationships with the U.S., such as Algeria, Qatar and Russia. Meanwhile, another reserve has the disadvantage of being located in Australia and is thus a more costly source when transport is factored in.
In the absence of better alternatives, however, these sources will become more and more crucial for the world’s supply. The only problem is that it takes time for these newer plants to be brought up to speed.
“Linde and other helium suppliers are heavily engaged in developing these new sources to ensure that there are adequate supplies of helium for many decades into the future,” says Nick Haines, head of Helium Source Development at Linde, one of the largest suppliers of helium in the world.
Seeking to head off a sudden spike in helium price, the House quickly passed a bill in April that would avoid the shutdown of the U.S. helium reserve and leave it open to non-government users. And in June, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources followed suit with a bill of its own.
It’s widely known that Congress, wracked by partisan divide, is on track to have one of its least productive years in six decades. It has passed fewer than 16 laws this year, while facing critical deadlines for budget bills and the nation’s debt ceiling this fall.
Given all the other political distractions afoot, health care professionals were justifiably worried that a bill to keep the Federal Reserve afloat for the short-term.
However, Washington came through this time: President Obama signed the bill in early October only days before the shutdown was scheduled to take effect.
That law will give the US several more years to sell off the gas stored in the reserve, avoiding an abrupt shock to the market. But it will still be several years before other countries are able to get production up to speed to fill the gap left by the United States.
