Science and Technology

Middle East and North Africa

The United States and Iran may no longer be in active conflict, having established and then extended a cease-fire in their weekslong war, but the list of economic disruptions and industrial shortages continues to grow—oil, natural gas, jet fuel, tungsten, sulfur, fertilizer.

Adding to that list is an often overlooked, but no less important, industrial input: helium.

The United States and Iran may no longer be in active conflict, having established and then extended a cease-fire in their weekslong war, but the list of economic disruptions and industrial shortages continues to grow—oil, natural gas, jet fuel, tungsten, sulfur, fertilizer.

Adding to that list is an often overlooked, but no less important, industrial input: helium.

You may know helium as the gas that keeps party balloons afloat and pumps voices to new heights, but the gas has farther-reaching impacts than that. Colorless and lighter than air, helium is also a vital ingredient in many of the world’s most powerful technologies, underpinning semiconductors, medical equipment, and more.

If “you think about semiconductors, fiber optics, or anything using superconducting magnets, the consequences of not having helium are gigantic in an economic sense,” said Nicholas Snyder, the CEO of North American Helium, which currently produces more than 7 percent of the helium supply in North America. “If you think about medical applications like MRI, there [are] huge consequences there as well.”

Weeks of war in the Middle East and attacks on energy infrastructure have dealt a painful shock to the global trade of helium, which is primarily extracted as a byproduct of natural gas production. As the world’s second-biggest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Qatar in particular is a major helium hub, accounting for about one-third of global helium supply before the war erupted.

That changed after Iran attacked Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility—the biggest LNG plant in the world—prompting the state-owned QatarEnergy to halt production, declare force majeure, and slash its annual helium exports by 14 percent.

Exports are also having trouble leaving the region: Most of Qatar’s helium exports normally transit the Strait of Hormuz, the vital maritime chokepoint that has been effectively strangled by the war.

The turmoil has already spiked helium prices, with spot prices reportedly doubling last month. But since the commodity is mostly traded through........

© Foreign Policy