Line weight proportional to supply volume · Select any node for detail
Hugoton-Panhandle (KS/OK/TX) · Riley Ridge (WY)
Ras Laffan Helium 1 & 2
Amur Gas Processing Plant
Skikda LNG Complex
Saskatchewan & Alberta
Tanzania · South Africa · Australia
Gas chromatography · NMR · mass spec
Weather balloons · airships · research
~50,000 scanners worldwide
Chips, AI accelerators, memory
Aluminum · stainless steel · aerospace
Rockets · satellites · guidance systems
Internet backbone & 5G infrastructure
Dilution refrigerators · millikelvin cooling
Strait of Hormuz — Transit Blocked. All Qatar helium exports must transit the Strait of Hormuz (21 miles wide). The ongoing Iran-Gulf conflict has effectively halted shipping. Two independent disruptions are now compounding: (1) Ras Laffan production is offline; (2) even if it restarts, Hormuz transit is blocked. ~30% of the world's specialised cryogenic ISO containers are stranded — either empty in Western distribution hubs or trapped behind the blockade at Ras Laffan, filled but undeliverable. By May, the global container fleet will be in the wrong hemisphere. Even if the war ended today, it would take 10–12 weeks to reposition them. A two-week production halt creates a three-month logistics disruption.
Note: Supply lines are indicative. Helium is fungible in the merchant market — all source countries supply all end-use sectors via industrial gas distributors, not through direct bilateral routes. Line weight is proportional to source supply share × sector demand share, reflecting relative market exposure, not verified bilateral flows. Supply shares: USGS MCS 2025. Demand shares: CRU Group / Gasworld.
~85–90% of global merchant helium flows through these four companies
Note: Distributor–to–end-use routing is directional and qualitative. Customer contracts are not publicly disclosed. Market share figures are industry estimates from Gasworld and CRU Group.
Long-term offtake from US (Hugoton, Riley Ridge), Algeria (Skikda), and other producers. Not significantly exposed to Qatar.
MRI/NMR (primary US supplier), analytical instruments, industrial welding, lifting gas
Supply constrained — Qatar and Russia sources both offline/restricted. Sourcing from spot market.
Major offtake from Qatar Ras Laffan (~30% of plant output) and Russia Amur GPP. Both sources currently disrupted.
Semiconductor fabs (Asia & Europe), medical imaging, research & laboratory
Severely impacted — 50% of Qatar output was primary supply. Declared supply constraints to customers.
Largest single buyer of Qatar Ras Laffan output (~50% of plant). Significant Qatar exposure.
Semiconductor manufacturing, medical imaging, research, industrial gases
Diversified sourcing across US, Canada, and spot market. Limited Qatar exposure.
Specialty gases, laboratory instruments, semiconductor (Asia-Pacific focus), research
End-use industries ranked by supply disruption exposure
~50,000 scanners worldwide
Liquid helium cools superconducting magnets to 4 Kelvin, enabling the magnetic field required for MRI imaging
Chips, AI accelerators, memory
Cooling lithography, etching, and deposition equipment; wafer backside cooling; leak testing in process tools; purging gas lines
Rockets · satellites · guidance systems
Pressurising liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel tanks in rockets; purging fuel lines; cooling infrared sensors; leak detection
Internet backbone & 5G infrastructure
Helium atmosphere used during fiber drawing to cool and control the glass fiber diameter with precision
Dilution refrigerators · millikelvin cooling
Liquid helium-3/helium-4 mixtures in dilution refrigerators cool quantum processors to millikelvin temperatures (~15 mK)
Gas chromatography · NMR · mass spec
Carrier gas in gas chromatography; cooling NMR magnets; leak detection in vacuum systems
Aluminum · stainless steel · aerospace
Shielding gas in TIG/MIG welding for reactive metals; provides higher arc temperature than argon
Weather balloons · airships · research
Non-flammable lifting gas; used in balloons and airships where hydrogen is considered too dangerous
The March 2026 Ras Laffan shutdown removes ~30% of global helium supply simultaneously with Strait of Hormuz transit disruption. Semiconductor fabs and MRI scanner networks face the most acute near-term risk, with a ~2-week inventory buffer before production impacts materialise.
“The shutdown of Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City has removed one-third of global helium supply from the market at the worst possible moment: semiconductor demand is at an all-time high, the US Federal Helium Reserve no longer exists as a strategic buffer, and the only country rapidly scaling alternative production — Russia — is sanctioned by the very nations most in need of supply.”
David B. Roberts · 16 March 2026All data sourced from publicly available, peer-reviewed, and institutional publications. Crisis data reflects reported conditions as of March 16, 2026. Confidence levels: HIGH = primary institutional source; MEDIUM = industry report or secondary source; ESTIMATED = derived or modelled figure.