As gasworld has not reported on the status of Helium Shortage 3.0 since its March 2019 edition, it seems timely to provide an update on the current state of global helium supply and the outlook going forward.
August will be the 19th month of Helium Shortage 3.0 and, presuming that ExxonMobil has proceeded with the planned five week maintenance shutdown of its Wyoming, USA plant that was scheduled for July and August, could turn out to be the peak of the current shortage. While the magnitude of the supply deficit is estimated to be in the range of 15%, +/- a few percent, when ExxonMobil’s plant is running normally, the supply deficit jumped to approximately 35% with ExxonMobil’s plant totally off-line.
To make the situation even worse, the Arzew, Algeria source was also expected to be down for maintenance (unrelated to the recent fire at the Arzew complex) during most or all of July, reducing supply by a further 3–4%. For the good of helium markets and helium consumers, let’s hope that ExxonMobil is able to return its plant to full production by the end of August and that helium markets gradually recover during September.
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