Summary: GAO is examining various proposals on how to best meet the government's need for helium, which has applications in the space program, weapon systems, and medical and scientific projects. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines manages the federal helium program. During its review, GAO became aware of a Bureau practice that may cause accelerated degradation of the purity of stored federal helium. Under the terms of its storage contracts with private companies, the Bureau may restrict the rate at which privately owned helium is extracted from Cliffside--a natural gas field near Amarillo, Texas. Yet the Bureau has not imposed such a restriction pending a review of a 1989 Bureau study on this issue. Meanwhile, helium is being extracted at a rate that may degrade the purity of the remaining helium faster than it would otherwise be degraded. Because larger volumes of the mixture of natural gas and helium must then be processed to extract and refine the less pure helium, the government could incur additional losses as high as $23.3 million in 1991 dollars through 2050.
