Just the facts Mad'am. Presently, we do not know how large a resource we have so being bought out is out of the question for both the buyer and seller.
Helium is a nonrenewable resource that's produced naturally underground through the radioactive decay of elements like uranium and thorium.
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but it's relatively rare on Earth. It's found under the Earth's crust with other natural gases. Commercial helium is extracted from natural gas when the helium concentration is above 0.3%.
Helium is the only element on the planet that is a completely nonrenewable resource. It can't be artificially created, and it's produced as a byproduct of natural gas refinement.
Natural Radioactive Decay Forms Helium
Helium is abundant in space, where it's produced as a product of the fusion reaction inside stars such as the sun. The naturally occurring helium on Earth, though, comes from a different sort of process. Deep inside the Earth, radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium decay and turn into other elements. The byproduct of these reactions are tiny fragments called a-particles, which consist of two neutrons and two protons. Those particles pick up electrons from the environment around them and turn into helium, which gradually rises up through the crust and is emitted into the atmosphere, where it keeps rising until it gets into space [source: University of Pittsburgh].
Extracted Natural Gas Is Another Source
Fortunately for us, helium also gets into the natural gas that oil and gas drillers extract from the ground for use as fuel [source: University of Pittsburgh]. That gives us a supply that we can use for blowing up balloons, as well as for a wide variety of other industrial processes, ranging from arc welding to MRIs to manufacturing silicon chips for computers. There has to be a certain amount of helium in the natural gas — at least 0.3 percent by volume – to justify all the trouble of separating it from natural gas.
This is done through industrial processes that filter other impurities, such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the gas. Finally, a process called cryogenic processing is used to cool the gas and remove the methane that makes up most of it, leaving behind a crude form of helium that is about 50 to 70 percent pure, with small amounts of argon, neon and hydrogen making up the rest. Then, the crude helium is purified through another cooling and filtering process that results in a form of helium that's more than 99 percent pure [source: NAP].
Helium Production Issues
The problem is that there aren't that many places with natural gas fields that have enough helium in them, and extracting helium is hard to do efficiently and affordably and most of it comes from just a few sources, including the U.S. government's National Helium Reserve in Texas. With so much demand for helium for industry, there just isn't enough to go around. That shortage has hurt businesses such as Party City, a party supplies company, which has closed a significant number of stores [source: Gibson].
Liquid Helium vs. Helium Gas
When helium is cooled to extremely low temperatures, it transforms into a liquid. Liquid helium has unique properties, such as the ability to flow without friction, making it invaluable in scientific research, particularly in the field of cryogenics. While helium gas is more commonly encountered in everyday applications, liquid helium is crucial for specialized equipment like MRI machines [source: Siemens Healthineers].
