Helium startups on the Prairies hope to keep domestic supplies afloat

To the untrained eye, the collection of pipes and structures rising out of the prairie 200 kilometres east of Calgary looks like any other natural gas processing plant in southern Alberta. 

But the Steveville plant isn't focused on extracting hydrocarbons. Instead, the prize it's seeking deep underground is helium. 

The element is most commonly associated with party balloons, but it has myriad other applications ranging from its use in MRI machines to semiconductors to the aerospace industry. 

Helium supply has tightened and prices have climbed in recent years, owing in part to the gradual depletion of the U.S. strategic helium reserve along with a cascading series of four global helium shortages since 2006.

Now, a new crop of helium prospectors on the Prairies hope to cash in on the in-demand commodity. 

"There is such a shortage that [companies] will come now to the producers and try to contract on the volumes before you've even started producing them," said Andrew Davidson, president and CEO of Royal Helium, a publicly traded company that owns the facility near Brooks, Alta.

The plant started up in October and has already secured a long-term contract to supply an American space launch company — though it's tight-lipped about which one.

Also in October, Royal Helium joined four other helium startups to create the Helium Developers' Association of Canada, an industry group representing companies at various stages of exploration and production.

The group believes Canada has the resources and know-how to become a greater player in the global helium market, and says it is particularly well-suited to producing helium for North American consumption.

It's pushing for favourable government policies to ramp up production as soon as possible. 

"We have this opportunity, there's a growing need and from a security of supply perspective, it makes an awful lot of sense," said Richard Dunn, the organization's executive director.

Still, it isn't clear how long the window of opportunity may last. As Canadian companies race to extract helium, they'll face competition from global energy giants with the same idea.

According to the United States Geological Survey, Canada has about 70 billion cubic feet of helium resources, the fifth largest concentration in the world. Most of that is found in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

Saskatchewan is further along in helium development. Land leased for helium exploration in that province has quadrupled since 2018, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. The government has set an ambitious goal of supplying 10 per cent of the world's helium by decade's end.