The U.S. Geological Survey National Helium Resource Assessment

Abstract:

In 2013, the U.S. Congress passed legislation directing the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to complete a national assessment of subsurface helium gas resources. As part of this assessment, the USGS has constructed a database of helium concentration from compositional analyses of produced gas. Though most data of this data is non-proprietary, helium data have been taken from both public and proprietary sources, with a majority taken from the USGS geochemical database (http://energy.usgs.gov/GeochemistryGeophysics/GeochemistryLaboratories/GeochemistryLaboratories-GeochemistryDatabase.aspx#4413382-introduction) and from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) natural gas database. Altogether, there are over 16,000 analyses of natural gas composition compiled.

In order to complete the assessment, it was necessary to correlate the well data with geologic reservoir data so that the helium concentrations could be compared with the reservoir and field-level gas production, in place gas volumes, and gas recovery factors. The well data from the compiled database were initially cross-referenced with the proprietary IHS Inc. well database, where possible. The results of that effort were then cross-referenced with three additional databases: the proprietary NRG Associates database of significant oil and gas fields of the United States, the non-proprietary U.S. Department of Energy’s gas information system (GASIS), and an internal BLM reservoir and field database. These field and reservoir databases provide the data needed to estimate the in-place helium resources for fields with economic concentrations of helium. In order for helium production to be economic, the gas produced from geologic reservoirs must be greater than 0.3 mole percent (mol%), or in the case of liquefied natural gas processing, greater than 0.04 mol%. The field and reservoir specific estimates of total gas in place volumes, gas recovery factors, and helium concentrations, can be used as inputs for a probabilistic assessment of known helium resource per reservoir. These reservoir resource values can then be statistically aggregated to estimate a total U.S. known helium resource, which will fulfill the Congressional mandate and provide crucial information on the future availability of domestic helium supply.