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 t

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...