Helium prices follow oil spikes

Oil price surges have grabbed the headlines, but other resources – like helium – are under pressure due to the war on Iran and the problems through the Strait of Hormuz.

One expert, Anish Kapadia of market research firm AKAP Energy, even said: "Helium is the commodity most impacted by the Iran conflict."

And it’s not just children’s party balloons that will be impacted by a helium shortage – industries like medical imaging and defence will feel the pinch if the shortage drags on.

"About a third of both the global helium and fertilizer supply passes through Hormuz," Politico said in a telling article this week.

"Helium spot prices have doubled since the war began," it quoted Kapadia. "Qatar’s state-run energy firm halted liquified natural gas production in the first days of the war and it is estimated it will take months to get it back up and running. The nation is a major producer of helium, which is a byproduct of liquefied natural gas production."

The geopolitical risks to helium production have already prompted Avanti Helium to call on the US Government to designate the gas a critical mineral, to help secure a stable supply.

In Australia, where unlike the US there is no domestic production of helium, the gas is also not on the critical minerals list.

“The longer it goes on, the more serious it’s going to get,” said Rich Gottwald, CEO of the Compressed Gas Association.

The full Politico article is here.

Meanwhile, international news agency Reuters quantified the loss of Qatari production.

It said QatarEnergy, which closed its LNG-helium facility at the start of the war, supplied about one third of the world’s helium and was the biggest producer outside the US.

"If those conditions (supply disruption) persist, the market is ⁠effectively missing about 5.2 million cubic meters of helium per month," said Aleksandr Romanenko, CEO of market research firm IndexBox.

To a market with little ​spare production capacity and limited storage, buyers had few short-term alternatives.

Reuters article here.

Gold Hydrogen will in the next couple of months undertake production tests for helium at its South Australian tenement and is watching international developments closely.

The aggregate market cap of the listed helium companies that Akap Energy monitors has risen by 20% since the Friday before the Iran conflict.