Funding for the U.S. Federal Helium Program, which supplies 35 percent the world’s crude helium, is set to expire Oct. 7, and that has chemical giant Praxair nervous.
The Danbury company said in a statement today that medical, electronics and automotive industries will all suffer higher helium prices if the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management shuts down the Amarillo, Texas helium field it has overseen since the 1920s.
A 1996 federal law called for the privatization of the helium industry, and mandated that the helium reserve be shuttered once it paid for its creation. The BLM’s website says the $1.3 billion will be repaid by October.
Praxair operates two of the six private helium refineries connected to the reserve, according to BLM.
The House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would keep the reserve operating, but the Senate has not gotten that far.
Praxair said “significant differences” in the approaches of the two houses make a solution unlikely before the end of September.