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The Crude Helium Enrichment Unit in the Cliffside Gas Field. Remnants of the Amarillo Helium Plant in 2015. The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, is a strategic reserve of the United States, which once held over 1 billion cubic meters (about 170,000,000 kg) [a] of helium gas.
The oil and gas reservoir was the primary helium source for the United States during the 1910s and at the commencement of World War I. By 1921, the North Texas natural gas field was estimated as near gas depletion exceeding the Petrolia helium reserves-to-production ratio yields. [3]
The lots included crude helium gas, the 24,700 square-foot Cliffside Gas Field Facility and all of its buildings, 38,314 acres of gas interests, 23 natural gas wells and 423 miles of pipeline that ...
The crude helium (50 percent to 80 percent helium) was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified. [ 13 ] By 1995, a billion cubic meters of the gas had been stored, but the reserve was US$1.4 billion in debt, prompting the Congress of the United States in 1996 to phase out the reserve. [ 14 ]
The Federal Helium Pipeline, spanning 423.24 miles and connecting the Cliffside Field to privately owned helium refineries across North Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and South Kansas.
Amarillo's Cliffside Gas Plant will begin the sale process, a decade after Congress passed the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013.
The Federal Helium Reserve was supposed to be sold off in 2021. Scientists hope it will remain in government hands. The fate of America's largest supply of helium is up in the air
[1] [3] [4] By 1970, it also became evident that the projected increase in government demand did not occur and that the helium stored in the Cliffside Field would last for decades. The combination of lower-than-projected demand and private competition resulted in sustained losses for the National Helium Reserve.