4 ms·

Can someone explain why we have a shortage? I'm a little confused given current drilling in the US.

mikestew 7y ago
Can someone explain why we have a shortage? That would normally be the job of the journalist that wrote the article. ‘dafuq, Bloomberg? “You know, the helium shortage.” No, I don’t know, Bloomberg. Is it related to the sell-off of U. S. helium reserves a while back? Or is it something different this time? Instead, we get “will your kids get balloons at their party this year?” Oh, and some brief mention about pharma, but we don’t really know how that works, so...yeah.
- chapium 7y ago
  BBC News tends to do a better job of showing related articles which provide context to the given article. Its helpful for geo-political news since I don't always have encyclopedic and historical knowledge of every region of the world.
- bonestamp2 7y ago
  Ya, when I was a kid, we had balloons, but they didn't have helium in them. They just had DLA (dad lung air). This year, my kids didn't have helium balloons either... they just had DLA. They didn't care at all, maybe didn't even notice the difference. So ya, who cares about party usage -- the shortage itself is the real story. They buried the lead so deep they forgot to dig it up.
  - foobarian 7y ago
    Gave me incentive to make hydrogen balloons from lye+Al reaction. Work just as well and then you get to blow them up later!
    - bonestamp2 7y ago
      That sounds interesting. Is it reasonably safe to have hydrogen balloons around at a kid's party? Any major dangers to watch out for besides the obvious proximity to candles?
sehugg 7y ago
A big reason for the shortage is that about 75% of all the helium comes from just three places: Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, ExxonMobil in Wyoming and the National Helium Reserve in Texas, according to gas-trade publication Gasworld.com. In Texas, the reserves are being depleted, while at the same time overall demand for the gas has been growing. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/09/helium-shortage-2019-affecting-parties/1158604001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/09/helium-short... "In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015" https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/discovery-of-massive-new-helium-reserves-is-game-changer-for-medical-industry/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/discovery-of-massive...
- protomyth 7y ago
  Thanks. Wasn't Algeria(?) supposed to be building something?

Can someone explain why we have a shortage? That would normally be the job of the journalist that wrote the article. ‘dafuq, Bloomberg? “You know, the helium shortage.” No, I don’t know, Bloomberg. Is it related to the sell-off of U. S. helium reserves a while back? Or is it something different this time? Instead, we get “will your kids get balloons at their party this year?” Oh, and some brief mention about pharma, but we don’t really know how that works, so...yeah.

chapium 7y ago
BBC News tends to do a better job of showing related articles which provide context to the given article. Its helpful for geo-political news since I don't always have encyclopedic and historical knowledge of every region of the world.
bonestamp2 7y ago
Ya, when I was a kid, we had balloons, but they didn't have helium in them. They just had DLA (dad lung air). This year, my kids didn't have helium balloons either... they just had DLA. They didn't care at all, maybe didn't even notice the difference. So ya, who cares about party usage -- the shortage itself is the real story. They buried the lead so deep they forgot to dig it up.
- foobarian 7y ago
  Gave me incentive to make hydrogen balloons from lye+Al reaction. Work just as well and then you get to blow them up later!
  - bonestamp2 7y ago
    That sounds interesting. Is it reasonably safe to have hydrogen balloons around at a kid's party? Any major dangers to watch out for besides the obvious proximity to candles?

sehugg 7y ago

A big reason for the shortage is that about 75% of all the helium comes from just three places: Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, ExxonMobil in Wyoming and the National Helium Reserve in Texas, according to gas-trade publication Gasworld.com. In Texas, the reserves are being depleted, while at the same time overall demand for the gas has been growing. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/09/helium-shortage-2019-affecting-parties/1158604001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/09/helium-short... "In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015" https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/discovery-of-massive-new-helium-reserves-is-game-changer-for-medical-industry/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/discovery-of-massive...

protomyth 7y ago
Thanks. Wasn't Algeria(?) supposed to be building something?