The war in Iran has helped drive a global energy shock, sending oil and gas prices higher and disrupting fuel markets–developments that are now adding fresh strain to an already fragile global helium supply.
Helium suppliers have begun warning customers of supply disruptions, according to industry letters and analysts. The element, a byproduct of natural gas processing, is essential for MRI machines, scientific research and semiconductor manufacturing.
“Over the past decade, helium has become more scarce and more expensive,” Jeffrey Hoch, a professor of molecular biology and biophysics at the University of Connecticut, told Newsweek. “It’s certainly more difficult to obtain.”
An American subsidiary of France’s Air Liquide said in a letter to customers, seen by the Financial Times, that it may not able to fulfil orders, while AirGas wrote to its customers to declare force majeure on contracts, according to a letter shared on X.
The disruption follows an Iranian missile strike on March 18 that damaged parts of QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffen complex–a facility tied to roughly a fifth of the Middle Eastern country’s liquefied natural gas output. Qatar is also the world’s second-largest helium producer, behind the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
QatarEnergy said the damage would take three to five years to repair, and it has also had to “declare force majeure for up to five years on some long-term LNG contracts.”
Iran has also threatened and undertaken measures that disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz–a key global energy chokepoint that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas – contributing to higher prices and tighter global supply.
For America, these disruptions carry added weight because the federal government no longer maintains a strategic helium stockpile. In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) completed the sale of the Federal Helium Reserve under a mandate from the 2013 Helium Stewardship Act, which required it to dispose of all federal helium assets.
The reserve was first established in 1926 to help the U.S. “keep pace with global advancements in military technologies, such as blimps,” according to the House Committee on Natural Resources. As blimps failed to be essential for defense, the U.S. was then left with a large reserve of helium, and the government continued to pour money into it until the 1980s.
Congress later moved to privatize the reserve beginning in the 1990s, arguing that selling off the stockpile would reduce taxpayer costs and help stabilize global supplies.
Industry groups such as the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) warned at the time that selling off the reserve could instead disrupt supplies of the vital element, and experts have since warned that helium has become scarce in the country, even though, America continued to be the world’s largest producer of helium throughout the process, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Hoch, director of the Gregory P. Mullen NMR Structural Biology Facility at the University of Connecticut, also said that having an adequate supply of helium “has been a concern for basic scientists like me who use superconducting magnets in our research for some time.”
Even before the sale of the reserve, there were concerns about the country’s helium supply. A report on the National Institute of General Medical Sciences stated “the helium in the reserve has gotten low,” and that “due to this depletion and delays in developing other sources, the demand for helium over the last few years has exceeded the supply.”
USGS data shows the federal reserve declined steadily before being fully depleted in 2024. At the same time, U.S. production has exceeded consumption in recent years–highlighting that the current concern centers on logistics, pricing and access rather than an immediate national shortage.
Still, industry experts say geopolitical disruptions could make sourcing helium more unpredictable and costly, especially for specialized users.
Hoch’s team recently acquired a “large superconducting magnet” from a lab in Berlin, Germany, he said. “In order to make it operational, we have to cool it to liquid helium temperatures,” he said, which is 4 degrees above absolute zero (around 460 degrees Fahrenheit). This requires very large amounts of liquid helium – around 2000 liters, he added.
It is helium’s ability to cool superconducting magnets that makes it so valuable, as machines like MRI scanners would likely not exist with it. An MRI machine can use between 1,500 and 2,000 liters of liquid helium to operate effectively, according to gas supplier WestAir. Helium is also used for certain respiratory therapies, for those with severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as for other medical purposes.
Hoch said that the helium supplier for the university has contracts with Qatar, which he said “can’t currently supply the helium we need.”
“They declared force majeure, freeing us to purchase helium from other vendors,” he said, adding they have now found a source domestically, in Texas, though the “cost is 50 percent higher than our contracted rate with our original supplier.”
Hoch said healthcare impacts are likely minimal for now, as many MRI facilities use recycling systems that limit ongoing helium use. However, he warned that shortages could complicate the installation of new MRI machines, which require large helium volumes for initial cooling.
Sophia Hayes, a professor of chemistry at Washington University, told Newsweek that she was “concerned” about the impact the Iran war would have on the country’s helium supply, and said she had heard of some labs having “restrictions in the amount of helium available to them.”
Hayes said short-term workarounds exist, but if supply restrictions continue for a longer period of time, it will become “increasingly more difficult to manage.” She also said that in some instances, because the supply is constrained, there may be “additional charges to acquire helium.”
Helium supply issues place “extraordinary stress on people who sustain superconducting magnets for research, for industry, and on occasion, for healthcare,” Hayes added.
“These magnets can be irreparably damaged if we run short of liquid helium in our labs, and sometimes there may be just a single magnet at a site,” she said, noting that magnet damage is extremely costly, sometimes accumulating to a multi-million loss.
Helium’s cooling properties also means it’s a vital part of microchips, which are the foundation of many modern-day devices, and the tiny powerhouses of artificial intelligence. This means a helium shortage would also have huge impacts on the technology industry, potentially shutting down production of microchips.
Looking ahead, experts say the impact on U.S. helium markets will hinge on how long energy prices remain elevated and whether instability in the Middle East continues to disrupt global gas production and shipping routes–at a time when the country no longer has a federal reserve to cushion future shocks.
In a polarized era, the center is dismissed as bland. At Newsweek, ours is different: The Courageous Center—it’s not “both sides,” it’s sharp, challenging and alive with ideas. We follow facts, not factions. If that sounds like the kind of journalism you want to see thrive, we need you.
When you become a Newsweek Member, you support a mission to keep the center strong and vibrant. Members enjoy: Ad-free browsing, exclusive content and editor conversations. Help keep the center courageous. Join today.
Read the full article here
