Premium
Where does all the helium that we use come from?
Author(s) -
Manning David A. C.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.3452
Subject(s) - helium , natural gas , chemistry , context (archaeology) , production (economics) , commodity , natural resource economics , economics , geography , archaeology , market economy , organic chemistry , macroeconomics
Helium occurs naturally in association with geological fluids and is regarded by economists as a mineral commodity. Commercially, helium is obtained as a by‐product from natural gas reservoirs that typically have concentrations of up to 1% He by volume (STP). Existing sources of helium within the USA are expected to decline in parallel with declining natural gas production. Huge reserves of helium occur in Algeria, Qatar and Russia, which are likely to dominate production for the next several decades. In this context, political and economic factors that affect hydrocarbon gas production may influence the availability and price of helium. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.