Helium named a critical material by Trump administration amid worries over global supply

Helium named a critical material by Trump administration amid worries over global supply Helium is the 20th critical material identified by DOE - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in Helium producers in the United States will gain access to more federal financing and the government will keep a closer watch on the gas after the Energy Department designated it a critical material on Friday. The Energy Department said the designation was made because helium is indispensable for making semiconductors that are essential to energy generation, and because the global supply is at risk of disruption. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration is freeing America from reliance on foreign sources of critical materials, strengthening domestic manufacturing, supporting American jobs and securing the materials essential to U.S. economic and national security. “President Trump is bringing back America’s manufacturing industry, and that means making sure we have the materials needed to build things in America again,” Wright said in a statement. Helium is the 20th critical material identified by the department. Metallurgical coal used for steelmaking was the last substance to be added to the list, in 2025. Fluorine is the only other gas on it. To qualify, a non-fuel mineral element or substance must serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, and there must be a high risk of disruption to the supply chain. The designation matters for reasons that go well beyond party balloons, even though helium is what makes them rise. The department points to the gas's role in wind, solar and nuclear energy production, space exploration, medical imaging and research. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said helium's unique properties make it irreplaceable, citing the facts that it is non-combustible and has the lowest boiling point of any gas. Robertson, who oversees the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, added that the nation needs an ample supply for semiconductors, quantum and super computing, and superconducting magnets. “We need to make sure that we can build those here. And helium is one of those components that could be a single point of failure, where we cannot let that happen. That’s why we’re designating it within our statutory authority, but I think why it’s important is not necessarily for our birthday parties,” Robertson said in an interview. “It’s really towards the future of American competitiveness and energy security, which we believe is national security.” The supply risks behind the designation are concentrated abroad. Qatar's helium exports have been severely curtailed by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a result of its war with Israel and the U.S. Iranian strikes on Qatar's infrastructure have also affected supply. Russia, one of the other top helium producers alongside the United States, imposed temporary export controls on helium in April to protect its domestic supply. The United States is the world's largest producer of both natural gas and helium, and helium is primarily produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing. Even so, U.S. output is constrained. The country produced 81 million cubic meters of helium in 2025, or 43% of the global supply, and exported 38 million cubic meters of that. Annual production has run at roughly 80 million cubic meters since 2021. Large reserves sit in Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah. But according to the department, helium extraction plants are at their limits, and it takes years to permit and build new ones, which continues to constrain U.S. production. Federal data shows the plants extracting the most helium, as of 2023, were located in Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. The constraints have a historical dimension. The United States once kept a strategic national stockpile of helium in Texas, much like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Congress mandated in 2013 that it be privatized, and the Bureau of Land Management completed the sale of the federal helium system to the industrial gas company Messer in 2024. Some in the helium industry had urged the government to make the designation formal. The North American gas exploration company Avanti Helium Corp. says it is urgent, and that an increase in North American supply is needed to avoid becoming dependent on foreign sources. The U.S. Geological Survey included helium on a 2018 list of critical minerals, but later lists omitted it because the domestic supply of helium was considered secure. The United States designates both critical minerals and critical materials, and there is some crossover between the two lists. Greeshma Gadikota, director of the Lenfast Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University, said that despite environmental concerns with recovering helium from natural gas, there are also opportunities. “If we burn the natural gas, there are a lot of CO2 emissions associated with that,” Gadikota said. "But if you just extract the helium and use it, the uses of it don't contribute necessarily to greenhouse gas emissions. “So from a climate standpoint, if we are going to continue down the line of extracting natural gas and recovering helium," she added, “I would prefer to see natural gas being used in a form where we directly produce hydrogen and we produce solid carbon.” Hydrogen is a clean burning fuel, and solid carbon can provide permanent carbon sequestration. “We can effectively consolidate everything from raw materials to finished product in terms of manufacturing in the United States and rely less on overseas,” Gadikota said. "It brings more refining, recovery, use capabilities to the U.S. and actually justifies any investments of U.S. taxpayer dollars in initiatives related to helium production and refining."