GLOBAL HELIUM RESERVES
There have been a number of press articles saying the world is running out of helium recently. These articles all seem to be based on one so called expert (Cornell professor of physics Robert Richardson), who is probably paid by those companies which wish to use hydrogen for leaky high altitude airships or who think they will lose funding as a result of the LEMV or HAA programs, where the US military are using funds that might have gone to surveillance aircraft or satellites. Anybody can find out in about 5 minutes of research that the idea of the world running out of helium is nonsense and bears no relation whatsoever to the facts.
The fact of the matter is revealed by the readily obtainable authoritative Mineral Commodity Summary for Helium for 2010, prepared by the US Geological Survey.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2010-heliu.pdf
“As of December 31, 2006, the total helium reserves and resources of the United States were estimated to be 20.6 billion cubic meters (744 billion cubic feet). This includes 4.25 billion cubic meters (153.2 billion cubic feet) of measured reserves, 5.33 billion cubic meters (192.2 billion cubic feet) of probable resources, 5.93 billion cubic meters (213.8 billion cubic feet) of possible resources, and 5.11 billion cubic meters (184.4 billion cubic feet) of speculative resources. Included in the measured reserves are 0.67 billion cubic meters (24.2 billion cubic feet) of helium stored in the Cliffside Field Government Reserve, and 0.065 billion cubic meters (2.3 billion cubic feet) of helium contained in Cliffside Field native gas. The Hugoton (Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas), Panhandle West, Panoma, Riley Ridge, and Cliffside Fields are the depleting fields from which most US helium is extracted. These fields contain an estimated 2.7 billion cubic meters (96 billion cubic feet) of helium.” That says that 0.735 of somewhere between 4.25 to 20.6 billion cubic meters of total US helium reserves is contained in what used to be the National Helium Reserve. Those figures are just the US Reserves, and do not count the rest of the world. Russia and Algeria alone have another 3.5 billion cubic meters of proven reserves which have barely been tapped.
For some reason the latest Commodity Survey omits a lot of reserve estimates which used to be tabulated for foreign lands. However, the old surveys are still on line, so you can still judge for yourself. For example, the 2002 survey:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/330302.pdf
“Helium resources of the world exclusive of the United States were estimated to be about 15 billion cubic meters.” This is what it calls the reserve base, which simply means the figures have not yet been proven but are informed estimates.
By the way, 20.6 billion + 15 billion is 35.6 billion total cubic meters for the world. Just for the fun of calculating, that would fill 178,000 Hindenburgs, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.78 trillion party balloons.
The issue here is not necessarily that nothing is wrong with the way helium is being handled currently. It is simply the same issue which is present in every one of the “running out of X” scenarios. Namely, that whatever is settled should be based on informed opinion, not hasty and overly micro-focused conclusions based on inaccurate data.
