“The import procurement of helium is facing more imminent situation from the second week of November on account of the start-up malfunction in the wake of Exxon Mobile’s regular maintenance, which has been overlapped incidentally by BLM’s reduced production by 20%. With the sudden notice of allocation from the exporters, all supplies are still more forced to suffer a serious limitation of supply after the summer season regardless of any field or application.


According to Iwatani which received a letter notice from Praxair at the beginning of November, BLM had a trouble of failure in pressure buildup in their piping system which transfers the crude gas to their purifying plant. “Praxair’s letter referred to an anticipated limitation of delivery within this year.” (Specialty Gas Dept.) The cause is estimated that some malfunction took place at the basic compressor in BLM’s storage house.


A well-informed source of trading firm tells that BLM produces helium usually in a quantity of 6.2 million f3 (170,000 m3 approx.) per day, but it has dropped to 5 million f3 (140,000 m3 approx.) per day since the trouble occurred, which means a decrease of production by 20%. The source also points out that their pipeline normally has a pressure of 1,250 psi but it has dropped to 900 psi. The pressure has decreased to a level of 500 psi at Praxair’s Bushton or Linde’s Otis operations which are the remotest location from the BLM reservoir. It is feared that such a low level may have already affected the purification process of helium.


On the other hand, in Exxon Mobil of the world-largest helium plant for which Matheson is entitled to take 50% and Air Liquide 30%, the regular maintenance of this autumn was prolonged and the operation seems to have not yet recovered to capacity after restarting at the end of October. It was reported that the operation rate had been 70% at maximum even before the regular maintenance. It remains ambiguous to which extent the delivery of helium will be recovered. For the suppliers who handle helium from Exxon it seems to be inevitable to be affected indirectly by the reduced production by BLM.

Under such circumstances the domestic suppliers in Japan have started to further control delivery of helium, practically requesting for saving and control of use regardless of any field of application including MRI, optical fiber, analysis/leak test or balloon. Even until now they have managed to get through difficulties by utilizing the trade inventory, but no prospect for the coming years is foreseen at all. They show growing anxiety about continuance of the critical situation.




The import procurement of helium is facing more imminent situation from the second week of November on account of the start-up malfunction in the wake of Exxon Mobile’s regular maintenance, which has been overlapped incidentally by BLM’s reduced production by 20%. With the sudden notice of allocation from the exporters, all supplies are still more forced to suffer a serious limitation of supply after the summer season regardless of any field or application.


According to Iwatani which received a letter notice from Praxair at the beginning of November, BLM had a trouble of failure in pressure buildup in their piping system which transfers the crude gas to their purifying plant. “Praxair’s letter referred to an anticipated limitation of delivery within this year.” (Specialty Gas Dept.) The cause is estimated that some malfunction took place at the basic compressor in BLM’s storage house.


A well-informed source of trading firm tells that BLM produces helium usually in a quantity of 6.2 million f3 (170,000 m3 approx.) per day, but it has dropped to 5 million f3 (140,000 m3 approx.) per day since the trouble occurred, which means a decrease of production by 20%. The source also points out that their pipeline normally has a pressure of 1,250 psi but it has dropped to 900 psi. The pressure has decreased to a level of 500 psi at Praxair’s Bushton or Linde’s Otis operations which are the remotest location from the BLM reservoir. It is feared that such a low level may have already affected the purification process of helium.


On the other hand, in Exxon Mobil of the world-largest helium plant for which Matheson is entitled to take 50% and Air Liquide 30%, the regular maintenance of this autumn was prolonged and the operation seems to have not yet recovered to capacity after restarting at the end of October. It was reported that the operation rate had been 70% at maximum even before the regular maintenance. It remains ambiguous to which extent the delivery of helium will be recovered. For the suppliers who handle helium from Exxon it seems to be inevitable to be affected indirectly by the reduced production by BLM.

Under such circumstances the domestic suppliers in Japan have started to further control delivery of helium, practically requesting for saving and control of use regardless of any field of application including MRI, optical fiber, analysis/leak test or balloon. Even until now they have managed to get through difficulties by utilizing the trade inventory, but no prospect for the coming years is foreseen at all. They show growing anxiety about continuance of the critical situation.”