3 ms·
In general shortages are less common than cheapskates. Helium is strange though. It is generally produced as a byproduct of natural gas. This means that its ava
by blululu 6y ago
In general shortages are less common than cheapskates. Helium is strange though. It is generally produced as a byproduct of natural gas. This means that its availability is largely driven by an unrelated market that is much larger and more lucrative. There is a big discontinuity in the price of helium as a byproduct and the price of helium as a primary good. Thus the supply of helium is relatively inelastic. Doubling the price does almost nothing to change the quantity supplied.
I personally recall a period around 2013 when suppliers simply did not have helium to sell.
- londons_explore 6y agoHow far are we from helium being the primary good? The price of natural gas is going lower and lower (and with strict environmental laws, might go even lower as companies move to other energy sources... How close are we to the value of helium being greater than the value of the methane?
- nordsieck 6y ago> How close are we to the value of helium being greater than the value of the methane? Probably pretty far away. I'm guessing that the amount of helium that's recovered from natural gas wells is pretty small compared to the natural gas recovered. Even if no one uses it for power, there's still home heating, vehicle fuel and plastic feedstock.
- maxerickson 6y agoAlso fertilizer. Methane is a primary input for nitrogen fertilizers. (arguably the input, as the nitrogen comes from air, which (obviously) is readily and abundantly available.)
- gorkish 6y agoBefore the helium price dive I had calculated the break over was wells with approximately 6% He concentration; the problem is the places that have this don’t have gas gathering systems and anything you try to do with the gas makes it uneconomical.