Read below. This is a statement from my campus vendor.
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Dean L. Olson, Ph.D.
Director, NMR Lab, 146 Roger Adams Lab
School of Chemical Sciences
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
600 S. Mathews, Box 81-5, MC-712
Urbana, IL 61801 USA
Lab: 217-244-0564; Cell: 217-722-9432
dolson_at_illinois.edu<mailto:dolson_at_illinois.edu>
http://scs.illinois.edu/nmr
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Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 3:49 PM
Subject: HELIUM ALLOCATIONS
I DO NOT HAVE A LOT OF DETAILS BUT AS OF THE 9TH WE ARE ON 75% OF LAST YEARS ALLOCATION, THEN THE 16TH. WE GO TO 50% ALLOCATION. I WILL GET DETAILS AS I GET THEM .PLEASE USE AS MUCH CARE AS POSSIBLE CONSERVING YOUR HELIUM SUPPLY. AND DO NOT PLAN ANY NEW STARTUPS ETC. SEE INFO BELOW. AS YOU WILL SEE IT IS REAL AND IT APPEARS FOR THE MOST PART TO BE A PLANNED WAY TO KEEP HELIUM IN A VOLATILE AS POSSIBLE STATE SO THEY CAN KEEP FEAR AND PRICES UP.
FYI - Helium has become very volatile in the last several weeks due to the following:
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) operated by the Gov't has planned to close down by the first week of October. The BLM sells about 42% of the crude Helium to the majors who then in turn purify and distribute. The process of shutting down will start mid-September.
Qatar Helium is a joint venture with Linde and Air LIQUIDE was on line and put both companies in a competitive situation over the other majors who purchase from the BLM. Qatar had a catastrophic failure and is now off line until repairs to the compressor can be fixed.
Exxon Mobile refines natural gas and pulls a Helium stream off of it and is now down the month of September for repairs.
Received on Tue Sep 03 2013 - 10:54:09 MST