Technical Note 429, Helium Resources of the United States—2007, is an assessment of the total estimated helium reserves and resources of the United States. This assessment is made using estimates of natural gas resources from the Potential Gas Committee (PGC) report, Potential Supply of Natural Gas in the United States (December 31, 2006); estimates of proved natural gas reserves from the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves 2006 Annual Report; IHS Inc., cumulative gas production data; and data from previous Helium Resources of the United States reports. This report is part of the Bureau of Land Management’s Amarillo Field Office mission of providing information to the Secretary of the Interior and the public on a limited natural resource that is being depleted.
This report only covers information on helium reserves and resources and does not report on current helium business or other activities that were discussed in previous reports. The report presents a general picture of the current helium resources of the United States and was simplified from previous reports to present a focused view of those resources. Part of the reason for the change was the result of feedback from industry customers that indicated previous reports were hard to analyze. In addition, some of the information that was presented in previous reports is already being reported in the U.S. Geological Survey published Mineral Commodity Summaries and Mineral Industry Surveys reports.
The total helium reserves and resources of the United States are estimated to be 732 Bcf as of December 31, 2006. This includes estimated measured reserves from previous helium resources reports, plus calculated reserves from DOE/EIA estimates of proved natural gas reserves and IHS Inc., cumulative gas production data, and estimated probable, possible, and speculative helium resources calculated from PGC estimates of natural gas resources for the seven PGC regions. The total resources include approximately 24 Bcf of helium being stored at the Federal Government’s Cliffside Gasfield Reserve in Potter County, Texas.