Perhaps the most valuable export produced by the U.S. oil and gas business isn't oil or gas. Rather, it's helium, that ultralight, inert gas vital to products ranging from party balloons to MRI scanners to nuclear bombs. Helium prices routinely float well above $100 per thousand cubic feet. Yes, you read that number right. There's just not much of it on earth, but the largest commercial source lies in natural gas fields below the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, extending to western Kansas and eastern Colorado. The region's Hugoton Field has been the largest helium souce for decades but is in steady decline. Tumbleweed Midstream LLC recently acquired the Ladder Creek helium plant in eastern Colorado from DCP Midstream LP in hopes of cashing in on strong helium demand here and abroad.
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