The threat of a worldwide helium storage is attracting front page headlines (Tucson's Arizona Daily Star) and a Congressional bill to halt the near give-away of U.S. reserves. But neither of the stories I read yesterday mentioned Arizona's helium resources and efforts underway to develop them.The St. John's carbon dioxide field in eastern Arizona could be equally considered a helium field. A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Kinder Morgan's purchase of the field and plans to produce large amounts of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery in New Mexico and Texas. But helium will be produced along with the CO2 and could be a major source to help meet the military, medical, and scientific demands for the gas. [Right, helium fields in Arizona. AZGS Open file Report 03-05, "Review of helium production and potential in Arizona"]
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