Tanzania's Helium

While the existence of helium in Tanzania is not novel, not many people know much about element other than it is used in party tricks.

Helium is associated to natural gas. It has been located in several blocks in Tanzania, where there has exploration for oil and gas. Exploration has taken place in Tanzania since the early 50's and continues to date. The Tanzania Petroleum and Development Corporation (TPDC), a government parastatal established in -May 1969, has been an important party to the Production Sharing arrangements signed in Tanzania and continues with oil and gas exploration to date. Helium has been located in few of the blocks where natural gas was discovered, but hardly anything to go to the news about.

The recent discoveries made a few days ago are novel because of the scale of the discovery which amounts to 54 Billion Cubic feet.

Hellium One, a company that not many people knew about until more recently, has been prospecting quietly in the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania. "Project Rukwa" seems to have several parties, the main one being Helium One, registered in Tanzania since September 2015 as an explorer, developer, and producer of high value bulk liquid helium for the international market. To date, this company has applied for and secured 20 Prospecting Licences with a further two applications submitted. All PLs are held solely by the Helium One, which has exclusive rights for another 9 years before they are converted into MLs and mining begins

Since the discoveries, Minister of Energy and Minerals Professor Muhongo made a statement hailing the discoveries of Helium. Netherland Sewell and Associates Incorporated (NSAI), independent experts, have publicly estimated an "Unrisked Prospective Recoverable Helium Resource (P50)" of 54.2 billion standard cubic feet. Helium occurs in 27 leads, defined by 2D seismic and is supported by data from two legacy exploration wells. Further, Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences had conducted a geochemical analysis of the surface gas emanations and confirmed helium migration within the basin through their recent geochemical analysis of surface gas emanations (cf. company website of Helium One for more information). Helium One has declared that it also planned an extensive work programme to convert this resource into reserves and define additional prospects.

This discovery makes Tanzania a potential global player when it comes to trading Helium in the future.

The main use of helium is...