Helium Super Summit 2023 Recap

by Michael Menduno

InDEPTH attended gasworld’s Helium Super Summit 2023 in Houston, Texas, in order to better understand what’s happening with the global helium market, and in particular Helium Shortage 4.0, which is discussed InDEPTH’s “The Future of Helium is Up in The Air,” by Ashley Stewart (see link below). The first day of the Summit addressed global helium supply, the cause of the current shortage, and included outlooks by helium guru Phil Kornbluth and Intelligas Consulting president Maura D. Garvey. Day two offered a variety of talks regarding helium uses such as semiconductor manufacturing, healthcare, and aerospace and equipment such as portable processing plants, cryogenic shipping containers and more. 

Ironically, I was the only diver representative in attendance, in my case, representing technical divers. Note that breathing applications i.e., diving, represents 4% of global helium use, though the majority is used by commercial and military saturation divers. Below is his report on the helium outlook live from the conference. Please note that InDEPTH is currently conducting a global survey of GUE instructors regarding helium prices and availability in their area, similar to our survey in 2022 (see below). We will report the results in a coming issue. 

We are also planning a feature on helium exploration. As you might suspect, with prices spiking there is significant incentive to find more helium reserves, and there are active exploration efforts underwater in the US, Canada, and Europe. As characterized at the Summit, “The search for helium represents the Gold Rush of the 21^st Century!”—M2

DIVE DEEPER

gasworld: Helium Super Summit 2023

Scuba Digital: The Future of Helium is Up in the Air Talk by Michael Menduno (May 2020). Everything you wanted to know about helium and its history and application to diving.

InDEPTH: The Price of Helium is Up in the Air by Ashley Stewart (July, 2022). With helium prices on the rise, and limited or no availability in some regions, we decided to conduct a survey of global GUE instructors and dive centers to get a reading on their pain thresholds. We feel your pain—especially you OC divers! InDEPTH editor Ashley Stewart then reached out to the helium industry’s go-to-guy Phil Kornbluth for a prognosis. Here’s what we found out.

InDEPTH: The Early Days of Technical Trimix Diving by Michael Menduno and RW Bill Hamilton (OCT 2021). The use of trimix, that is a breathing mix of oxygen, helium and nitrogen has become the standard for dives beyond 30-50m/100-165 ft, depending on who you dive with. However, things were much different when mixed gas technology was just emerging. Here is an in depth look at the early days of what was then called “special mix” diving including an explanation of special mix tables by Dr. RW Bill Hamilton, a report on the first 1500 trimix dives by then aquaCORPS chief Michael Menduno, and a selection of Key West Diver Consortium tables for dives to 76 m/250 ft. From the aquaCORPS archives.

InDEPTH: The First Helium-based Mix Dives Conducted by Pre-Tech Explorers (1967-1988) by Dr. Christopher Werner (AUG 2022). More than 20 years before the emergence of technical diving, a handful of intrepid cave divers who were perilously pushing the limits of air diving began experimenting with helium mixes for deep diving. Some succeeded, several were injured, one drowned.

InDEPTH: Dr. Bill Talks Mix by Michael Menduno (OCT 2020) The late great decompression physiologist, Dr. R. W. “Bill” Hamilton played a unique role in the early development and emergence of technical diving. Listen to “Dr. Bill” and cave diver nurse anesthetist John Crea discuss “special mix” diving at the TEK.95 conference (1995).

InDEPTH: The Santa Barbara Helium Rush—The Legacy Of Dan Wilson’s 400-foot Gas Dive By Don Barthelmess (SEP 2020). Roughly 25 years before the emergence of tech diving, commercial divers were pushing the limits of “deep air” as offshore oil fields grew steadily deeper. That is, of course, until 1962 when 33-year old Santa Barbara abalone diver cum entrepreneur Danny Wilson made his 123 m/400 ft dive on heliox paving the way for the commercial mixed gas revolution. Professor Don Barthelmess reflects on Wilson’s Big Dive!

Michael Menduno/M2 is InDepth’s editor-in-chief and an award-winning journalist and technologist who has written about diving and diving technology for more than 30 years. He coined the term “technical diving.” His magazine “aquaCORPS: The Journal for Technical Diving” (1990-1996) helped usher tech diving into mainstream sports diving, and he produced the first tek.Conferences and Rebreather Forums 1.0 , 2.0 & 4.0. In addition to InDepth, Menduno serves as an editor/reporter for DAN Europe’s Alert Diver magazine, a contributing editor for X-Ray mag, and writes for DeeperBlue.com. He is on the board of the Historical Diving Society (USA), and a member of the Rebreather Training Council.