A strategic reserve is the reserve of a commodity or items that is held back from normal use by governments, organisations, or businesses in pursuance of a particular strategy or to cope with unexpected events.
12-682: The National Helium Reserve , also known as the Federal Helium Reserve , is a strategic reserve of the United States , which once held over 1 billion cubic meters (about 170,000,000 kg) of helium gas. The helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Amarillo, Texas , in a natural geologic gas storage formation, the Bush Dome reservoir. The reserve
24-594: A global catastrophe. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault facility, opened in 2008, focuses on collecting duplicate samples of plant seeds from all around the world and currently contains close to 1 million different agricultural seed samples. The final storage capacity is said to be 4.5 million seed samples. Another such institution, Frozen Ark , concentrates on DNA preservation of endangered animal species for generations. A strategic reserve can be: Examples of commodity reserves: Certain countries create their own unusual strategic reserves of food or commodities they value
36-460: A specific industry and provide sufficient investment incentive as described in the following example. This time the strategic reserve is defined as a set of power plants or interruptible demand contracts, all controlled by the TSO ( transmission system operator ), that can be used during temporary lack electricity. The strategic reserve does not necessarily mean a change of available generation capacity,
48-524: The Department of the Interior to start selling off the reserve by 2005. Government sales flooded the market with cheap helium, causing much of the private helium industry to shut down; the facility remained in government hands. The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 mandated higher prices but a continued selldown to 3 billion cu ft (85 million m) remaining by October 1, 2018, which
60-410: The TSO only takes the control over certain power plants or even averts some power stations from being decommissioned. The activation of such a strategic reserve due to shortage of generation volume at prices above the variable costs of the generation units can lead to a rise of the average electricity price and therefore spark more investments into the generation capacity sector, the main market purpose of
72-571: The US Department of Defense in 2005 defines a strategic reserve as follows: "An external reinforcing force which is not committed in advance to a specific Major Subordinate Command, but which can be deployed to any region for a mission decided at the time by the Major NATO Commander." There are several national and international projects aiming to preserve the existing natural wealth and diversity in case of mass extinction or
84-605: The United States' largest helium source. The helium is separated as a byproduct from the produced natural gas. After the Helium Acts Amendments of 1960 (Public Law 86–666), the U.S. Bureau of Mines arranged for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. For this helium conservation program, the Bureau built a 425-mile (684 km) pipeline from Bushton , Kansas, to connect those plants with
96-495: The government's partially depleted Cliffside gas field. This helium-nitrogen mixture was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified. By 1995, a billion cubic metres of the gas had been collected, and the reserve was US$ 1.4 billion in debt, prompting Congress to begin phasing out the reserve in 1996. The resulting Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–273) directed
108-419: The most, such as cotton, butter, pork, raisins or even maple syrup. "Strategic reserve is a volume-based capacity mechanism in which a centrally established capacity is kept outside of the electricity market and is only used if the market participants do not offer enough generation to meet short-term demand." Strategic reserve can be also applied as an economic instrument in order to stabilize investments in
120-540: Was achieved with auctions. It also set a deadline of September, 30, 2021 for sale of the reserve. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) transferred the reserve to the General Services Administration (GSA) as surplus property, but a 2022 auction failed to finalize a sale. On June 22, 2023, the GSA announced a new auction of the facilities and remaining helium. The auction of the last helium assets
132-623: Was due to take place in November, 2023. Though the last of the Cliffside reserve was to be sold by November 2023, more natural gas was discovered at the site than was previously known, and the Bureau of Land Management extended the auction to January 25, 2024 to allow for increased bids. As of January 25, 2024, it is expected that the remaining reserve will be sold to the highest bidder, Messer Group . 35°21′07″N 101°59′28″W / 35.352°N 101.991°W / 35.352; -101.991 Strategic reserve A document issued by
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#1732780989651144-785: Was established with the enactment of the Helium Act of 1925 . The strategic supply provisioned the noble gas for airships , and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the Cold War and Space Race . The facilities are located close to the Hugoton and other natural gas fields in southwest Kansas and the panhandle of Oklahoma, plus the Panhandle Field in Texas. These fields contain natural gas with unusually high percentages of helium—from 0.3% to 2.7%—and constitute
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