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 helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of
Amarillo, Texas, in a natural geologic gas storage formation, the Bush Dome[2] reservoir. The reserve was established with the enactment of the
Helium Act of 1925. The strategic supply provisioned the
noble gas for
airships, and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the
Cold War and
Space Race.
The facilities are located close to the
Hugoton and other
natural gas fields in southwest Kansas and the panhandle of Oklahoma, plus the Panhandle Field in Texas.[3] These fields contain natural gas with unusually high percentages of helium—from 0.3% to 2.7%—and constitute the United States' largest helium source. The helium is separated as a byproduct from the produced natural gas.
After the Helium Acts Amendments of 1960 (Public Law 86–666), the
U.S. Bureau of Mines arranged for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. For this helium conservation program, the Bureau built a 425-mile (684 km) pipeline from
Bushton, Kansas, to connect those plants with the government's partially depleted Cliffside gas field.[4] This helium-nitrogen mixture was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified.
Government sales flooded the market with cheap helium, causing much of the private helium industry to shut down; the facility remained in government hands.[8] The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 mandated higher prices but a continued selldown to 3 billion cubic feet remaining by October 1, 2018, which was achieved with auctions.[9] It also set a deadline of September, 30, 2021 for sale of the reserve.
The
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) transferred the reserve to the
General Services Administration (GSA) as surplus property, but a 2022 auction[10] failed to finalize a sale.[11] On June 22, 2023, the GSA announced a new auction of the facilities and remaining helium.[12] The auction of the last helium assets was due to take place in November, 2023.[13] Though the last of the Cliffside reserve was to be sold by November 2023, more of the natural gas was discovered at the site than previously understood, and the Bureau of Land Management extended the auction to January 25, 2024 to allow for increased bids.[14] As of January 25, 2024, it is expected that the remaining reserve will be sold to the highest bidder,
Messer Group.[15]
^Pierce, A.P., Gott, G.B., and Mytton, J.W., Uranium and Helium in the Panhandle Gas Field Texas, and Adjacent Areas, Geological Survey Professional Paper 454-G, Washington:US Government Printing Office, 1964.