The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve

TABLE 2.1 Ownership and Location of Helium Extraction Plants in the United States in 1998

Category and Owner or Operator	Location	Product Purity
Government-owned
Bureau of Land Management	Masterson, Tex.	Grade A helium^a^,^b
Private industry
Air Products Helium, Inc.	Hansford County, Tex.	Grade A helium^a
Air Products Helium, Inc.	Liberal, Kans.	Grade A helium^a
Amoco	Ulysses, Kans.	Crude helium^c
BOC Gases	Otis, Okla.	Grade A helium^a
CIG Company	Keyes, Okla.	Grade A helium^a
CIG Company	Lakin, Kans.	Crude helium
Crescendo Resources	Sunray, Tex.	Crude helium
ExxonMobil	Shute Creek, Wyo.	Grade A helium^a
GPM	Moore County, Tex.	Crude helium
GPM	Hansford County, Tex.	Crude helium
KN Energy, Inc.	Bushton, Kans.	Crude helium
KN Energy, Inc.	Scott City, Kans.	Crude helium^d
National Helium Corp.	Liberal, Kans	Crude helium
Nitrotec	Chillicothe, Tex.	Grade A helium^e
Nitrotec	Cheyenne Wells, Colo.	Grade A helium
Pioneer Resources	Fain, Tex.	Crude helium
Pioneer Resources	Satanta, Kans.	Crude helium
Praxair, Inc.	Bushton, Kans.	Grade A helium^a
Praxair, Inc.	Ulysses, Kans.	Grade A helium^a
Trident NGL	Ulysses, Kans.	Crude helium^f
Unocal	Moab, Utah	Grade A helium^a
Union Pacific Resources	Cheyenne County, Colo.	Grade A helium^a^,^g
Williams Field Services	Baker, Okla.	Crude helium
^a Including liquefaction. ^b Stopped production in April 1998. ^c Began production in May 1998. ^d Output is piped to Ulysses, Kansas, for purification. ^e Began production in December 1998 (est.). ^f Stopped production in May 1998. ^g Began production in October 1998.

Of greater consequence for this study are the specifications of the Federal Helium Reserve. The Federal Helium Reserve is stored in the Bush Dome reservoir in the Cliffside gas field near Amarillo, Texas (Figure 2.1). The Bush Dome reservoir originally contained one of the early helium-rich natural gas deposits discussed in Chapter 1 . The formation is approximately 3,500 ft (1,100 m) deep and about 300 ft (91 m) thick and has a 10 percent porosity. The government owns approximately 50,900 acres (20,200 ha) in the Bush Dome region. The Dome has a total capacity of approximately 45 billion scf (1.2 billion scm). The facility currently contains approximately 30.5 billion scf (850 million scm) of government-owned crude helium, or about a 10-year world supply at the current rate of use. Private industry stores an additional 4 billion scf (110 million scm) of helium in the reservoir.

Table of Contents

Front Matter R1-R18

Executive Summary 1-3

Overview 4-13

1 Properties and History 14-18

2 U.S. Federal Helium Reserve and the Helium Privatization Act 19-25

3 Uses of Helium 26-39

4 Helium Supply, Present and Future 40-48

5 Economics of the Helium Market 49-54

6 Impact of the Implementation of the Helium Privatization Act 55-60

Bibliography 61-62

A: Agendas for Meetings of the Committee on the Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve 63-69

B: Helium Privatization Act of 1996 70-77

C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members 78-79

D: List of Acronyms and Definitions 80-80