With Helium, commercial uplift beyond oil and gas beckons

J.K. Obatala— a Public Lecturer, Amateur Astronomer and The Guardian contributor for 33 years—has long sought to focus attention on “helium,” as a neglected national resource. In May, 2015, for instance, he published a series of columns, in The Guardian, entitled “The Helium Conundrum”. Two years later, the then Vice Chancellor, at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Professor Akii Ibhadode, asked Obatala to give a talk on the subject. After his lecture—which is referenced in this essay—Ibhadode quickly appointed a “Research Group”—and made the Helium Activist a member. As Group Member and Advisor, Obatala held briefings and submitted written Advisories, that encompassed the issues and insights he now shares with readers.

Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Qatar—the world’s leading producer of helium (He-4)—in 2017, caused a global shortage of this highly strategic commodity: A constituent of natural gas, whose crucial importance seems to have eluded Nigerian policymakers. During a lecture, in August, of that year, I stressed the need to identify and quantify Nigeria’s helium resources, as the first step towards rectifying this policy lapse. Partly with Nigeria’s 1991 Gulf War windfall in mind, I offered the following prognostication:

“Helium has begun to flow from Qatar again,” I noted. “But I’d be surprised, if we have seen the last upheaval—even with the discovery, last year, of large helium deposits in Tanzania”.
Five years after my talk, on “Nigeria’s Stake In The Global Helium Crisis”—delivered at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Delta State—the industry is mired in “Helium Shortage 4.0”: The world’s fourth sector dislocation, since 2006.

“Like Helium Shortages 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0,” writes Nicolás Rivero, in Quartz magazine, “this crisis was caused by a handful of unexpected supply disruptions in the heavily concentrated helium production industry.”

According to Rivero, just 14 plants, around the world, stock the global helium sector. But over the past few months, he says, “disasters have struck the largest of these plants, disrupting supply…”.

Until this year, for instance, the U.S., in particular, had expected Russia to ease the supply squeeze. But a fire at its mammoth Amur plant, in Siberia, plus the Ukraine War, has “derailed the timeline,” as NBC television’s Caroline Hopkins, put it recently.
Further enhancing He-4’s commercial status, are dim hydrocarbon prospects, due to global climate change concerns (evinced in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the 2021 Glasgow Pact and Egypt’s just-concluded COP27)—plus a surging alternative energy industry.

But what, actually, is helium? It is, for starters, the second most abundant, the second oldest and the second lightest element, after hydrogen. Chemically, He-4 is the first noble gas in the periodic table. It is non-toxic, tasteless, colourless and inert.

Two isotopes of helium occur naturally: Helium-3 (He-3) and helium-4. All He-3, and roughly 7% of He-4, are primordial residue, trapped deep in Earth’s interior during the planet’s formation. Radioactive decay, of crustal elements, accounts for 93%.

He-4’s rising commercial and strategic star, stems from certain unique properties, which endow it with many scientific, technological and industrial applications. The most important, is that helium has the lowest boiling temperature, of any element.

In fact, He-4 doesn’t become solid, except under specialized conditions. This makes it virtually indispensable, for cryogenic (low-temperature) uses, such as cooling infrared telescopes, nuclear reactors and powerful magnets.

Also, being the smallest of all atoms, helium migration is virtually unstoppable. It moves freely (vertically and horizontally) in Earth’s crust—diffusing easily, through granite and other rocks.
The Helium Market
The helium market is segmented into “gas” and “liquid” phases. The gas phase is biggest, generically, with about a 70 per cent share. But it is fragmented, into myriad small components, such as “lifting,” “purging,” “breathing mixtures,” “welding,” etc.

By contrast, the use of liquid helium, in the medical industry—mainly to cool magnets in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, but also in treatment—accounts for 32 per cent of overall sales: Making healthcare the largest single component of the market.

Verified Market Research, estimates that the global helium market was valued at 21.04 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is projected to reach 30.80 billion by 2028. It will expand, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.90 per cent, from 2021 to 2028.

Analysts note further, that demand has been growing steadily since 2009—causing prices to spiral upward. But He-4 prices move independently: And so, serve as a “veritable hedge” against wavering natural and liquefied natural gas (LNG) returns.

Currently, for instance, 1,000 cubic feet of helium, sells for 100 times more than the same amount of methane!

There is demand for 32,000 tons (6.2 billion cubic feet) of helium per year—mostly in Western Europe, the former Soviet Union (FSU) states and the U.S.A. Other consuming regions, are China, Latin America, Middle East/Africa and the Asian Pacific Countries.

Market analysts cite an array of end-use industries, as drivers of global helium demand. Greater purchasing power in major consuming countries, is expected to impact both the party balloon industry and helium-based healthcare services.
The expanding electronics industry, uses He-4 in everything from smartphones and laptops, to LED (light emitting diode) screens and the manufacture of semiconductors. Even COVID-19 has increased demand—since vaccines are cooled, in liquid helium!

Over the next seven years, analysts project, the increasing use of He-4 in defense and energy research, nuclear power plants, space, the Internet, transport and metalworks will drive gas-phase demand at a CAGR of 4.6 per cent, and liquid helium at 3.6 per cent.
Sources of Helium: ‘Industrial’ and ‘natural’
The main sources of commercial helium are: (1) Primary processing of methane and natural gas liquids (NGLs); (2) Liquefied natural gas (LNG) production; and (3) Geological formations, containing He-4 concentrations of at least 0.3 per cent. “(1)” and “(2),” are subsumed under “Industrial Reservoirs”—the processing complexes, where the world’s He-4 feedstock is currently generated. Nigeria’s six gas plants, thus make a prima facie case, for its potential as global helium player.

Explicating “(3),” is a different kettle of fish! A complex array of geochemical and physical variables, must have coalesced, within and beyond Nigeria’s borders, to form a “Natural Reservoir”—a geological structure, bearing exploitable amounts of He-4. Yet the Tanzanian experience—which I’m using, as a case study—raises the prospect that Nigeria’s geology could harbor a natural helium reservoir. This section, thus focuses mainly on the factors that have combined to create the promise of helium.
Industrial Reservoirs
Contrary to popular belief, “natural gas” is not synonymous with “hydrocarbon”. Gas extracted from natural reservoirs also contains non-hydrocarbons, such as hydrogen, argon, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and helium.

Helium is being created, at a rate of roughly 3,000 metric tonnes, annually, throughout Earth’s crust. But it is the nuclear decay of uranium and thorium—not the bacterial decay of plankton (as with hydrocarbons)—that powers this process.

These nuclear reactions, occur in the grains of granite source-rock, after which helium diffuses to water in the pores of sedimentary reservoirs. When molecular nitrogen (N2) flows through the rock, He-4 fractionates—and moves along with it.

At natural gas plants, nitrogen rejection units (NRUs) separate N2 out. NRU fractionation is, as a matter of course, combined with helium recovery, in a six-step process, that generates most of the world’s commercial feedstock:
Natural gas processing/pretreatment (removal of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, water and heavy metals). Natural gas refrigeration (removal of heavier hydrocarbons if any) and liquefaction (production of liquefied natural gas). Nitrogen rejection (removal of nitrogen)/helium recovery from natural gas. Helium upgrading. Helium purification; and Helium liquefaction.

The fractionation of hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons, into their constituent gases, has the effect of concentrating He-4—typically, to levels of 50 per cent, or higher. These He-4-enriched off-gases, first exploited in Algeria, are critical industrial reservoirs.
Natural Reservoirs

A preliminary assessment—based on the literature and available data—is that the eastern half of Nigeria’s landmass, extending from the Niger Delta, northward to the Chad Basin, ought to be explored for structural traps, holding high-helium gases. Geologically, this broad swathe is roughly coterminous with the Nigerian section of the Benue Trough—a 50 to 150 km wide, and 1,000 km long, system of rifts, faults, plateaus, extinct (or dormant) volcanos and basins that extend beyond its borders.
Case Study: Rukwa Valley As Prototype

In 2016, Thomas Abraham-James, CEO of Helium One—an explorer, developer, and producer of liquid helium—floated the possibility of a huge He-4 reservoir, in Tanzania’s Rukwa Basin.

“Project Rukwa,” would become the first helium reservoir, found through a planned and systematic search, rather than prospecting serendipity. It is thus the prototype for burgeoning stand-alone production projects, within the He-4 supply chain.

A basic tenet, of Helium One prospectors, is that their technique is applicable, wherever geological conditions are similar to those in Tanzania—as they are, to some extent, in the Benue Trough.
Similarities between the Nigerian and Tanzanian landmasses include their structure, basement and basin lithology, as well as thermal and tectonic history. But Nigeria’s crustal geology is quiescent, compared with Tanzania’s intensely active Rift System.

Tanzania’s Rift System, is part of the famous East African Rift Valley—a network of fractures, fissures and volcanoes that run north-south, along a tectonic fault. (“Faults” are up, down or lateral slippages, at the boundaries of Earth’s numerous crustal plates).
Two critical factors, are the age of Tanzania’s granitic craton, and the proximity of volcanic heat to the reservoir. Uranium and thorium, have had eons to emit alpha particles (He-4 nuclei)—with volcanic heat, to power migration out of the craton.

Upon exiting the source rock, He-4 begins its secondary migration to a gas trap, either in nitrogen-, methane- or carbon dioxide-dominated groundwater. Rukwa researchers, reported nitrogen-rich gases, with high helium content, bubbling out of warm springs.

It is instructive, that Helium One prospectors discovered several fault-related hot springs, in the region. Villagers utilize the springs for salt mining, by evaporating the highly saline fluids. Briny water, in hot springs, could signify salt-capped gas traps.

Finally, geologists also found evidence of strike-slip motion, in Rukwa faults. “Strike-slip,” means two contiguous crustal plates (or segments), lying in the same plane, are moving laterally. This seals cavities in the vertical walls, trapping gases inside.
Nigeria in Geological perspective: WCARS

Even though Nigeria’s geology doesn’t replicate Tanzania’s, exactly, the difference is more a matter of degree, than of kind. Nigeria’s boundaries are political, not geological. Its landmass, is part of a continent-wide tectonic regime, that stretches across Africa.

The West and Central African Rift System (WCARS), as it is known, geologically, extends more than 7,000 km, from Nigeria to Sudan—traversing, as it does, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and the Central African Republic.
Both the East and West African subsystems, are associated with continental breakup and ocean formation: But at different times. WCARS, being older, has dissipated most of its seismic energy—and is, therefore, less active.

Somalia and the Horn of Africa have, by contrast, been steadily separating from the continent, for the past 25 million years or so—generating seismic activity, as the East African rift widens. The Red Sea (a flooding basin), is the early stages a new ocean.

But the West and Central African Rift System is far older. It evolved 145-to-66 million years ago (during the Cretaceous), when the supercontinent, “Gondwanaland”—which consisted of South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia—was breaking up.

Africa and South America rifted apart, with the Atlantic Ocean filling the basin. The rupture occurred, along two lines of a vaguely “Y” shaped triple junction, which became the Atlantic. A third leg of the “Y,” failed to form an ocean.

Structurally, this failed arm (or “aulacogen”) is what we know as the Benue Trough. As an aged rift valley, the Trough must have exhibited, at one time, all the physical and geochemical properties of Tanzania’s Rift Valley region: Including helium generation.
The Nigerian Landmass

Extending hundreds of km beneath Nigeria, on either side of its landmass, is a “craton”—a huge, and extremely hard, mass of crystalline rock. Cratons, are the basic units from which continents form, as more malleable material, accrete onto them.

Whereas Tanzania sits directly atop one of these “proto-continents,” Nigeria is wedged, like meat in a sandwich, between the West Africa and Congo cratons—two of five such masses, that form the Africa tectonic plate. Not incidentally, Nigeria’s landmass is almost equally divided between old crystalline rock, which are commonly referred to as “basement complex,” and much younger sediment-filled basins. The crystalline complexes are Pre-Cambrian, in age.

Prospecting for commercially exploitable helium reservoirs, must begin with a search for Archaean source rock. “Archaean” (meaning “primitive” or “ancient”) refers to rocks dating back 3,800 to 2,500 million years ago (Mya), in the Precambrian eon.

Geologists date Nigeria’s basement rock, from Archean to Early Proterozoic. This means the uranium-thorium decay series, has been generating alpha particles (helium nuclei), in both the basement complex and the cratons, for 2.0 to 2.7 billion years.
The Benue Trough

Delineated, in this segment, are enticingly suggestive indicators in the Benue Trough—which intrigue geologists. They have, for the sake of enumeration, divided the Trough into “Lower,” “Middle” and “Upper” regions. But first, a helpful note on helium geology: Investigators have learned, that for commercial quantities of helium to accumulate, at a particular place, four critical conditions must have coalesced:
• The granitic basement rocks must be rich in helium-generating thorium and uranium.
• Fractures and faults must have occurred in the granite, through which helium can escape.
• There has to be porous sedimentary rock overlying the fault, to serve as a reservoir.
• Low permeability rock—such as halite (rock salt) or anhydrite (calcium sulphate)—should cap the porous sediment, to retard He-4 diffusion.

Factors in Helium formation
Uranium and Thorium Decay—Alpha particles (helium nuclei) are generated through the radioactive decay of uranium-235 and 238, as well as thorium-232. Geologists have found a correlation between He-4 concentrations in soil gases, and underlying uranium deposits. Uranium is confirmed in six states, while Nigeria is Africa’s fourth biggest thorium producer—adding local relevance, to the correlation.

Magmatism— “Magma” is hot liquid rock, that expands and rises. Its motions power geological processes, such as rifting, faulting, earthquakes and volcanism. Magmatic upwelling, occurred repeatedly, throughout the Benue Trough 147-106 million years ago (Mya)—each time, liberating He-4, from granite.

Rifting—A rifting (cracking) crustal rock, creates a wide opening. A sinking landmass, divides the separating shards—resulting in a network of faults (large fractures in Earth’s crust) and basins. Localized faults, along rifts in the Trough, enable helium to migrate, horizontally and vertically. Meanwhile, the faces of fractured blocks slide past each other horizontally, in a “strike-slip” motion. This seals crevices in the walls of faulting rock—creating traps, that could hold helium.

Volcanism—Volcanoes occur, when hot, upwelling magma, break through weak spots in Earth’s crust. Intense volcanism, in the Benue Trough, provided heat energy, to drive primary and secondary helium migration.

Anticlines—Eighty-four million years ago, a “deformation event” severely compressed layers of rock, in the Trough’s basins: Creating a “chain” of folds. Similar folds hold most of the world’s hydrocarbon resources.

Since He-4 and hydrocarbons cohabitate, geologically, some folds—or anticlines—may also harbor commercial quantities of helium.
Brine Springs and Salt Deposits—Being the smallest of all atoms, helium will eventually diffuse through any type of rock. He-4 escapes slowest, from traps with anhydrate (calcium sulphate, CaSO4) or halite (rock salt, NaCl) cap-rocks. Brine springs and salt deposits are, therefore, often tell-tale indicators, signifying the presence of helium traps, beneath the surface. As in Rukwa Basin, the local salt trade, in the Benue Trough, is based on a belt of brine springs. The biggest ones, are Abakaliki (Lower Trough), Keana (Middle) and Mutum Daya (Upper), respectively.
Coalbed Formations—Coalbeds, in active and abandoned mines, not only emit methane, but are also, in some instances, He-4 reservoirs. Nigeria’s abundant coal deposits, are confined mainly to the Lower Benue Trough—the Anambra Basin, in particular. The coalbeds of Enugu, Orukpa, Okobo, Okaba, Odokpono and Ogboyaga, are all possible helium repositories.

As global demand for hydrocarbon fuels wane, a supply squeeze is sending helium prices skyward. This market trend, raises the prospect that helium exports—in liquid and gaseous form—could help cushion the impact of declining petroleum revenue.

It also accentuates the importance of identifying and quantifying Nigeria’s helium resources—as a precondition, for their exploitation. My working hypothesis, is that He-4 abounds in local industrial and, possibly, natural reservoirs.