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“Helium supplies are tightening up again”

Article By: Marc S. Reisch

Link: https://cen.acs.org/articles/96/i12/Helium-supplies-tightening-again.html

            Helium. It’s probably what you think of as that stuff we put in balloons to make them float. But what you might not know is that this noble gas is also an important ingredient in both nuclear testing and many medical practices. So once many people realized that the international helium supply was running short, they started to panic. The shortage is due to a couple key contributing factors. First off, back in June of 2017, Saudi Arabia blocked a major helium shipment from leaving the country. This shipment block is just one of many disruptions in supply flow in the middle East, due to upsets between Qatar, Saudi Arabia and many of the international gas producers based in those countries. The second factor is a shortage at one of the world’s leading helium facilities in Texas. This Texas facility produces 30% of the world’s helium supply. While there is a shortage of helium being produced at this production zone, there are new helium facilities opening up in multiple different countries across the world. The shortage is supposed to end by 2019, as many of these facilities will be fully operational by that year.