U.S. Designates Helium a Critical Material as Qatar Supply Squeezed

The Energy Department designated helium a critical material on Friday, opening more federal financing for producers because global supply of the gas — indispensable for semiconductor manufacturing — faces disruption from the Iran war.

The decision, announced by DOE, means the government will monitor helium more closely and channel more federal money toward producers. Helium is primarily produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing, and the United States leads the world in output of both. Qatar and Russia are the other top producers, and both are now constrained.

Qatar's helium exports have been severely curtailed since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz during its war with Israel and the U.S. Iranian strikes on Qatari infrastructure have also hit supply. Russia imposed temporary export controls on helium in April to protect its domestic market. The U.S. suddenly has less competition on paper — and fewer fallback options.

What does the designation change?

Helium becomes the 20th critical material on DOE's list. The last addition came in 2025, when the department designated metallurgical coal used for steelmaking. The only other gas on the list is fluorine.

To qualify, a non-fuel mineral element or substance must serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies and carry a high risk of supply-chain disruption. Helium clears both bars. Beyond balloons, it plays an important role in wind, solar and nuclear energy production, space exploration, medical imaging and research.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright framed the move as part of a broader Trump administration push to end reliance on foreign sources of critical materials. "President Trump is bringing back America's manufacturing industry, and that means making sure we have the materials needed to build things in America again," Wright said in a statement.

Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson, who oversees the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, said helium's unique properties make it irreplaceable: it's non-combustible and has the lowest boiling point of any gas. The nation needs ample supply for semiconductors, quantum and super computing, and superconducting magnets, she said.

"We need to make sure that we can build those here. And helium is one of those components that could be a single point of failure, where we cannot let that happen. That's why we're designating it within our statutory authority, but I think why it's important is not necessarily for our birthday parties," Robertson said in an interview. "It's really towards the future of American competitiveness and energy security, which we believe is national security."

The U.S. Geological Survey included helium on its 2018 list of critical minerals, but later lists dropped it because domestic supply was considered secure. That assumption no longer holds.

Can U.S. production answer the call?

The numbers show why DOE moved. The U.S. produced 81 million cubic meters of helium in 2025 — 43% of global supply — and exported 38 million cubic meters of it. Output has held at roughly 80 million cubic meters annually since 2021.

Large reserves sit in Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah. But extraction plants are running at their limits, and permitting and building new ones takes years, according to DOE — a structural constraint on any rapid ramp-up. The plants extracting the most helium as of 2023 were in Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.

The U.S. also gave away one buffer. A strategic national helium stockpile in Texas — analogous to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — was mandated for privatization by Congress in 2013, and the Bureau of Land Management completed its sale to industrial gas company Messer in 2024.

Parts of the industry had been pushing for exactly this designation. Avanti Helium Corp., a North American gas exploration company, had urged the government to act, calling it urgent and warning the U.S. needs more North American supply to avoid foreign dependence.

Researchers see openings alongside the environmental concerns. "If we burn the natural gas, there are a lot of CO2 emissions associated with that," said Greeshma Gadikota, director of the Lenfast Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University. "But if you just extract the helium and use it, the uses of it don't contribute necessarily to greenhouse gas emissions." She'd prefer natural gas processing that directly produces hydrogen and solid carbon, which can provide permanent carbon sequestration.

"We can effectively consolidate everything from raw materials to finished product in terms of manufacturing in the United States and rely less on overseas," Gadikota said. "It brings more refining, recovery, use capabilities to the U.S. and actually justifies any investments of U.S. taxpayer dollars in initiatives related to helium production and refining."

The designation won't open a new plant tomorrow, but it puts federal money and monitoring behind a gas whose supply chain just got a lot more fragile.