Helium supply has fluctuated from a slight surplus when the large Qatar 2 production came fully onstream in 2014, to in-balance with the supply disruption of the Qatar blockage in June 2017, to tight supply beginning spring 2018.
The ongoing tight supply caused by helium shortages peeked this summer during the planned plant outage at the largest US supplier, ExxonMobil. Supply has been tight since the spring of 2018 due to a series of planned and unplanned plant outages, delays in plant startups, and the continued reduction of helium and ongoing allocations by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Following the unprecedented average crude helium price paid at the final BLM auction in August 2018 ($280/Mcf), and subsequent final allocated and non-allocated BLM sale price set by the BLM ($175/Mcf), helium price increases were driven to comparable new highs by global helium sources, the major helium suppliers, and to end-users as contracts allowed.
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