Mineral Resources

Meeting Federal Needs for Helium Gao ID: RCED-93-1 October 30, 1992

Federal agencies use helium in everything from space programs to superconductivity research. The Helium Act of 1960, which seeks to conserve and provide a steady supply of this inert gas for essential government activities, requires federal agencies to buy most of their helium from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines. The act further provides that Interior price federal helium so that revenues from sales cover all program costs. This report discusses (1) actions that the Bureau has taken to meet the objectives of the 1960 act; (2) issues that should be considered when Congress decides how to meet current and foreseeable federal needs for helium, including whether the program debt in the Helium Fund should be cancelled or repaid; and (3) three alternatives for meeting federal needs for helium--continue the Bureau's existing program, require that all federal needs be met by the private sector, or allow federal agencies to choose to buy helium from either the Bureau or private industry.

GAO found that: (1) the Bureau has met federal needs for helium; (2) the Bureau has conserved helium by purchasing and storing a large amount that would have otherwise been vented into the atmosphere; (3) the Bureau has fostered the development of a private helium industry through crude helium purchases and other actions; (4) the helium program's debt could be cancelled without adversely affecting the overall federal budget; (5) the Bureau could be required to price federal helium comparable to private prices to continue encouraging the private helium-refining industry; (6) competition between the Bureau and the private helium-refining industry could be eliminated by requiring that the Bureau meet all federal needs for helium, while prohibiting the Bureau from meeting any non-federal needs; and (7) decisions would have to be made about allowing private industry access to the Cliffside, Texas, helium storage facility and disposing of the program's capital assets if the Bureau's program is terminated.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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