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2 weeks ago | 
gasworld.com | Christian Annesley |Rob Cockerill |Phil Kornbluth |Dominic Ellis
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The helium market has been changing the past two years, mostly triggered by the unintended impact of sanctions on the flow of Russian helium in the global market and by the growth of Russian supply. The assessment was made by Phil Kornbluth of the US-based helium consultancy Kornbluth Consulting, presenting at the Specialty Gas Summit 2025 in Utrecht.
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Jun 24, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Rob Cockerill |Phil Kornbluth
The Council of the European Union (EU) has announced that its 14th sanctions package against Russia includes a ban on imports of Russian helium into the EU, as widely expected. The import ban will go into effect on September 26, 2024. According to the European Commission, the new package revealed today (June 24) responds to the needs and findings on the ground, and tackles enforcement issues.
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May 8, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
Word out of Brussels this week is that the 14th sanctions package proposed by the EU would include a ban on imports of Russian helium into the EU. While the sanctions package is still under review and details are not yet available, it seems likely that a ban on helium imports will be included in the final package. Russia currently produces bulk liquid helium from three different sources.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
Similar to economic recessions, it can be difficult to identify the precise start or end of a helium shortage. All the same, Kornbluth Helium Consulting (KHeC) believes that, after winding down gradually during the second half of 2023, Helium Shortage 4.0 (HS-4.0) ended by the end of 2023 or early in Q1 of 2024.
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Jan 26, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
Despite last ditch efforts by the Compressed Gas Association to postpone the General Services Administration’s long-awaited auction of the Federal helium assets, the GSA proceeded with the bid opening as planned at 2 PM CST on January 25. While there was considerable interest in the auction result, there was minimal participation in the auction. There were two lots offered for sale:Lot #1 consisted of 1 billion standard cubic feet of crude helium.
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Jan 18, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
As the world is now aware, Houthi rebels based in Yemen have been attacking cargo vessels, tankers and commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Israel invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Most of these attacks have taken place near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea or in the Gulf of Aden.
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
Ihave worked in a variety of commercial roles in the global helium business for the last 41 years. When I joined BOC Gases’ helium business in January 1983, the sector was a highly concentrated global oligopoly dominated by three of the world’s leading industrial gas companies, namely Air Products and Chemicals, BOC Gases and the Linde division of Union Carbide.
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Jan 15, 2024 | 
gasworld.com | Rob Cockerill |Phil Kornbluth
It’s been five years since gasworld last profiled the helium heatmap, and seven years since this feature debuted back in 2016. A lot’s changed in the global helium business in that time, and yet so much also still feels the same; what was then Helium Shortage 3.0 ultimately subsided when Covid-19 reduced helium demand in 2020, only to be succeeded by Shortage 4.0 a couple of years later – a market tightness that seems to be subsiding today.
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Oct 16, 2023 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
Although there were a handful of other contributing factors, most helium market observers would peg the beginning of Helium Shortage 4.0 to the start of an extended outage of the US Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Crude Helium Enrichment Unit (CHEU) back in mid-January 2022. While Helium Shortage 4.0 remains in place as of early September and now exceeds 19 months in duration, we are starting to see clear indications that it is finally subsiding.
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May 30, 2023 | 
gasworld.com | Phil Kornbluth
In recent years, driven by recurring shortages and historically high prices for helium, we have seen an unprecedented number of helium exploration start-ups around the world – but especially in North America. A lot of this activity has been focused on the Four Corners area in the southwestern United States, as well as the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.
