Liquid Helium Shortage ???
Woody Conover (woody@acornnmr.com)
Tue, 21 Aug 2001 10:11:46 -0700
Howdy All,
I submitted a question about liquid helium rationing a couple
of weeks ago. I also gave a summary of replies to my question.
Updated results from the summary:
27 sites have no rationing
7 sites have rationing
1 site may have rationing
The most common suggestion we received from the AMMRL community
was to explore other vendors.
>From this survey and the suggestion, I concluded that the
liquid helium shortage is not yet a wide spread problem
and seemed to be limited to some helium vendors and that I
should take the AMMRL communities advice and explore other
vendors.
We buy our liquid helium from MR Resources. In our area, they
use BOC Gases for liquid helium distribution. We called them
to inquire about the shortage. They report that:
"they were told last that there is a nationwide shortage
for the foreseeable future. They have no information as to
what's causing the shortage. For the duration of the shortage
Dewars will be filled 70% full. Prices are also up 15%."
In a follow-up communication with MR Resources they supplied
a letter from BOC Gases. The letter is copied at the bottom
of this email.
As a liquid helium reseller, MR Resources seems to be caught
between a rock and a hard place. Perhaps they should also
consider the AMMRL community's advice - explore other vendors.
I live in CA where electric power prices are rising rapidly,
if you can keep it turned on at all. One of the electric
utility companies went bankrupt and does not have the money
to pay for purchase of electric power. As a result the state
government has to pay for it or the electric power generators
will not supply it. During the rotating power blackouts in CA
more than 25% of the power generating plants were off-line for
one or more reasons, such as: natural gas prices were too high
to make it profitable to generate electric power, or for "routine"
maintenance or because they had run out of "pollution credits"
which allows them to operate. The net sum is that my taxes are
going up to pay for the electric power for the utility companies
while my electric power companies bill me for the power at
around 100% more per KWH than last year, all the while they
threaten to turn off the power.
All this BS just tends to make me more cynical. Now it seems
to be liquid helium. Limit supplies, raise prices, blame
breakdowns and maintenance, threaten shortages - now where
have I heard this before?
I sure hope this liquid helium shortage does not become a
real problem for NMR facilities !
Is anyone else having problems not reported in the previous
survey?
woody@acornnmr.com
Letter from BOC Gases to MR Resources
==========================================================
August 20, 2001
Mr. Jon Webb
M R Resources
158 R Main Street
Gardiner, MA 01440
Subject: Tightening Helium Market and Allocation
Dear Mr. Webb:
As you may well be aware, the helium market has recently
entered a phase that is unprecedented over the last 10
years.
Historically, helium source development has outpaced
market demand. Due to this, helium customers benefited
with commensurately low and relatively stable pricing as
helium suppliers sought outlets for this excess capacity.
However, in recent years as demand has continued to grow at
an ever increasing pace, the development of new sources
has lagged market growth. This has resulted in an
increasing tightness of supply in the marketplace.
This tightness has reached a point that is resulting in
dynamic changes to market prices and costs. It has also
led to periodic shortages due to supply interruptions
in the worldwide helium business.
One of the worlds main helium sources, Exxon in Wyoming had
several mechanical failures in the last two months. This
created a major shortage to their customers. The effect this
had on BOC led to the need to allocate shipments for six weeks.
BOC fulfilled this allocation by filling customer orders to
70% of capacity. Our expectation of our customers when they
are asked to utilize 70% of normal orders would be to fill
your cryostat to 80% for one or two fills instead of to
100%. This keeps you above a dangerous level and ensures we
do not run out of product. All customers get sufficient
helium to meet their needs, and we get through this temporary
period of tight supply together.
BOC believes in full disclosure to our customers when a
supply disruption occurs. Missing shipments and losing
orders are no way to try to manage tight supply. I will
also add that BOC does intend to continue supply of thirty
liter dewars unlike other suppliers.
BOC is experiencing “rising costs of purchasing, producing
and distributing helium. These higher costs are due to a
number of factors including strong demand for helium which
has shifted supply to higher cost sources, supply interruptions
and higher prices for natural gas which have caused feedstock
costs to rise. The well publicized higher energy and fuel
costs are also resulting in higher refining and distribution
costs. BOC anticipates that the trend toward higher costs
for helium will continue in the foreseeable future as the
industry moves toward reliance on higher cost sources,
including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM)
strategic reserve of crude helium. BOC is adding further
processing capacity in the next 10 months. This will gives
extra capacity to draw more gas from the pipeline during
supply interruptions at non pipeline sources. This should
allow us to avoid further allocations.
At BOC we continue to place a priority on providing the
highest level of customer service available in the industry
and in maintaining the continuity of supply. We trust that
you will view these actions as necessary in light of the
current helium market situation.
Please call us if you have any questions on this matter.
Sincerely,
Dave Sterrett
BOC Gases
Eastern Helium Sales Manager