Legislation Is Proposed to Extend Helium Sales Deadline

[phantom power]

In 1996, Congress passed a law to privatize the Amarillo helium by requiring the federal government to sell nearly all of its reserves. But the law expires at the end of 2014, years before the sell-off will be complete. Last week a Senate committee heard testimony about the bipartisan Helium Stewardship Act, which would extend the time period for the sales. Walter Nelson, an official with Air Products and Chemicals, a Pennsylvania-based helium refiner, warned that without such a move, chaos would ensue, with significant disruptions to industries like semiconductors and fiber optics.

“Imagine the impact on global markets if 30 percent of the world’s oil reserves were off limits,” he testified.

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Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the federal government had been selling its helium at below-market prices, thus reducing companies’ incentive to find more helium — and he wants to change that. Even so, rates have been rising. The Bureau of Land Management, which runs the reserve, has announced that prices will rise 11 percent for the next fiscal year.

Could more helium be found in other oil and gas fields in Texas, like the Eagle Ford Shale? Dr. Groat said that seemed unlikely. The uranium veins in South Texas are relatively new, he said, and the radioactive decay needed to create helium “is associated with very, very old rocks.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/us/legislation-proposed-to-extend-texas-helium-sales-deadline.html