Economy 5 min read By Bethany Hadley
US designates helium a critical material as Iran war disrupts Qatari supply
The Energy Department has added helium to its list of critical materials, citing its indispensable role in semiconductor production and a supply chain at risk of disruption after Iranian strikes and export curbs.
The United States has designated helium as a critical material, a move the Energy Department says reflects its indispensable role in making semiconductors and the growing risk to global supply. The designation, announced on Friday, means more federal financing will be available for helium producers and that the government will monitor the sector more closely.
Helium is primarily produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing. The United States is the world's largest producer of both natural gas and helium, while Qatar and Russia are the other leading producers. Exports from Qatar have been severely curtailed by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz during its war with Israel and the United States, and Iranian strikes on Qatari infrastructure have also affected supply. Russia imposed temporary export controls on helium in April to protect its domestic market.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration aims to free the country from reliance on foreign sources of critical materials, strengthen domestic manufacturing and secure materials essential to economic and national security. "President Trump is bringing back America's manufacturing industry, and that means making sure we have the materials needed to build things in America again," Wright said in a statement.
Helium is the 20th material on the Energy Department's critical materials list. Metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, was added in 2025, and the only other gas on the list is fluorine. To qualify, a non-fuel mineral element or substance must serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies and face a high risk of supply chain disruption.
Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson, who oversees the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, said helium's properties make it difficult to replace. It is non-combustible and has the lowest boiling point of any gas. The country needs an ample supply for semiconductors, quantum and supercomputing, and superconducting magnets. "Helium is one of those components that could be a single point of failure, where we cannot let that happen," Robertson said in an interview. She described the designation as tied to future American competitiveness and energy security, which she said is a matter of national security.
Helium also plays a role in wind, solar and nuclear energy production, space exploration, medical imaging and research. Its best-known everyday use, lifting balloons, is not the reason the department has focused on it.
The United States designates both critical minerals and critical materials, and there is some overlap between the two lists. The US Geological Survey included helium on a 2018 list of critical minerals, but later lists dropped it because domestic supply was considered secure.
Domestic production is itself constrained. The country produced 81 million cubic meters of helium in 2025, about 43 per cent of global supply, of which 38 million cubic meters was exported. Output has run at roughly 80 million cubic meters a year since 2021. Large reserves exist in Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah, but extraction plants are operating at their limits, and permitting and building new ones takes years, according to the Energy Department. Congress mandated in 2013 that the federal helium stockpile in Texas, similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, be privatised, and the Bureau of Land Management completed its sale to the industrial gas company Messer in 2024.
Greeshma Gadikota, director of the Lenfast Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University, said recovering helium carries environmental trade-offs but also opportunities. Burning the natural gas from which helium is extracted produces significant carbon dioxide emissions, whereas the helium itself does not contribute directly to greenhouse gas emissions when used. She said she would prefer that the associated natural gas be converted into hydrogen and solid carbon, which can be stored permanently. Gadikota also said consolidating production, refining and manufacturing in the United States would reduce reliance on overseas suppliers and justify public investment in helium production.
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