Summary

• Helium production is concentrated in a handful of countries, with the US, Qatar, Russia and Algeria dominating global supply.
• Qatar’s Ras Laffan is one of the largest sources of grade-A helium globally, where its share of high-purity supply is disproportionately large relative to its headline production volume.
• The US is the most credible near-term alternative at 81m cubic metres annually, with Oxford Economics noting meaningful room to redirect US volumes towards Taiwan and South Korea, which largely rely on helium from Qatar.

Few substances on Earth have a more extraordinary origin story than helium. Formed over millions of years through the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium deep underground, it slowly seeps through rock until trapped alongside natural gas.

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