Is Earth’s Helium Running Out?

Yes, the Earth is running out of helium because it is a nonrenewable resource. This is how Total Helium brings value to its investors and other stakeholders, by performing the important work of helium exploration and storage.

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, with hydrogen being the first. If that is the case, then why is helium so expensive? Why do companies need to actively engage in helium exploration if its supply is so plentiful? Why is there a shortage of helium in the market? Why are people investing in helium exploration companies?

The answer is that the Earth is running out of helium. In fact, helium is the only element on the periodic table that is considered a nonrenewable resource on Earth. According to NPR News, “helium is generated deep underground through the natural radioactive decay of elements such as uranium and thorium. ‘It takes many, many millennia to make the helium that’s here on the Earth,’ says Sophia Hayes, a chemist at Washington University in St. Louis. The helium seeps up through the Earth’s crust and gets trapped in pockets of natural gas, where it can be extracted.”¹

What’s more, helium is so much lighter than air that it actually escapes the Earth’s atmosphere once it is released from those underground natural gas pockets unless it is stored properly. In other words, the helium that was inside every balloon that you have ever popped in your life is now floating around in space somewhere, never to be used again.

When you consider the facts that all of the helium that humans can currently use already exists and is trapped underground and that, unless that helium is recycled after it’s used it is lost into space forever, it becomes clear why Total Helium is heavily invested in the business of helium exploration and storage.