National Helium Reserve

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

File:Crude Helium Enrichment Unit.jpg
The Crude Helium Enrichment Unit in the Cliffside Gas Field.
File:Amarillo Helium Plant.jpg
Remnants of the Amarillo Helium Plant in 2015

The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, was a strategic reserve of the United States, which once held over 1 billion cubic meters (about 170,000,000 kg)Template:Efn of helium gas. The helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about Script error: No such module "convert". northwest of Amarillo, Texas, in a natural geologic gas storage formation, the Bush Dome[1] reservoir. The reserve was established with the enactment of the Helium Act of 1925. The strategic supply provisioned the noble gas for airships, and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the Cold War and Space Race.

The facilities were located close to the Hugoton and other natural gas fields in southwest Kansas and the panhandle of Oklahoma, plus the Panhandle Field in Texas.[2] These fields contained natural gas with unusually high percentages of helium—from 0.3% to 2.7%—and constitute the United States' largest helium source. The helium is separated as a byproduct from the produced natural gas.

After the Helium Acts Amendments of 1960 (Public Law 86–666), the U.S. Bureau of Mines arranged for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. For this helium conservation program, the Bureau built a Script error: No such module "convert". pipeline from Bushton, Kansas, to connect those plants with the government's partially depleted Cliffside gas field.[3] This helium-nitrogen mixture was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified.

By 1995, a billion cubic metres of the gas had been collected, and the reserve was US$1.4 billion in debt, prompting Congress to begin phasing out the reserve in 1996.[4][5] The resulting Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–273) directed the Department of the Interior to start selling off the reserve by 2005.[6]

File:Detail, Helium gas storing, 3-8-23 LCCN2016847319 (cropped).jpg
Helium gas production on March 8, 1923

Government sales flooded the market with cheap helium, causing much of the private helium industry to shut down; the facility remained in government hands.[7] The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 mandated higher prices but a continued selldown to Script error: No such module "convert". remaining by October 1, 2018, which was achieved with auctions.[8] It also set a deadline of September, 30, 2021 for sale of the reserve.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) transferred the reserve to the General Services Administration (GSA) as surplus property, but a 2022 auction[9] failed to finalize a sale.[10] On June 22, 2023, the GSA announced a new auction of the facilities and remaining helium.[11] The auction of the last helium assets was due to take place in November, 2023.[12] Though the last of the Cliffside reserve was to be sold by November 2023, more natural gas was discovered at the site than was previously known, and the Bureau of Land Management extended the auction to January 25, 2024 to allow for increased bids.[13] In 2024 the remaining reserve was sold to the highest bidder, Messer Group.[14]

See also

Notes

Template:Noteslist

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. ↑ The National Helium Reserve and related media at History.com; retrieved December 9, 2013
  2. ↑ Pierce, A.P., Gott, G.B., and Mytton, J.W., Uranium and Helium in the Panhandle Gas Field Texas, and Adjacent Areas, Geological Survey Professional Paper 454-G, Washington:US Government Printing Office, 1964.
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Emsley, John. Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Page 179. Template:ISBN
  5. ↑ Guide to the Elements: Revised Edition, by Albert Stwertka (New York; Oxford University Press; 1998; page 24) Template:ISBN
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". (podcast on origin and history)
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Further reading

Template:Wikisource/outer coreScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

  • Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

External links

Script error: No such module "Coordinates".

Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=National_Helium_Reserve&oldid=3327633"