The uses of helium as a gas are not limited to birthday party’s entertainment. There are many applications for this light-weight inert gas largely used in scientific research, equipment used in medical field and in micro-technology. In the year 2016, the only high-grade helium factory that started its operation in Canada was located in southwest Saskatchewan.
Helium has a unique property to remain in liquid state even at extremely low temperatures, thus making it a good cooling agent for superconducting magnets usually used in the research and medicine (including MRIs) industry. It’s also essentially used in rocketry and plasma welding.
Weil Group which is based in Virginia reactivated two of its legacy helium wells in the year 2016 and built a 40-million-cubic-feet-per-year, USD 10 MN helium separation facility located at Mankato.
Helium was then sent to Weil’s liquefaction facilities situated in U.S. and was sold till the production was suspended in mid-2019. To restore the output a new well was drilled by Weil group.
North American Helium is the most active company to stake out helium leases and permits close to 1.7 MN hectares in the Saskatchewan region. In the southern Saskatchewan, it has drilled close to 13 new helium well, among which 11 are considered commercially viable. By mid-2020 the company plans to open a plant to process gas from a single well.
Moving ahead with the production will totally depend on taking up long-term supply contracts with different buyers, who are more likely, be among the big industrial gas suppliers. Currently these gas suppliers control the global distribution.
A market study on global industrial gas market by Value Market Research throws light on the prospective applications of industrial gases along with market forecasts in next six years. The potential seems huge. North American Helium’s next five-year plan focuses on wells, separation plants and liquefaction facilities which intend to supply a substantial amount of global demand which is currently close to 7 BN cubic feet per year.
Naira Shekhawat has been into Content Writing just after completing her Graduation in English Literature. Her love for words has won her many accolades in her respective jobs ever since. Naira covers business sections for VMR News. She is a traveller by heart and loves writing on food blogs as a freelancer.