According to local news sources, a 2-mile radius evacuation zone around the Haven Midstream Gas Plant – previously known as the Tenawa Haven Gas Plant – was formed as crews worked to contain the fire.
Although now contained, the incident could further compound the ongoing ‘Helium Shortage 4.0’, which dates back to July 1st, 2021, when the US Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) crude helium enrichment unit began a four month outage.
Speaking on the shortage in February, Phil Kornbluth, Kornbluth Helium Consulting, LLC and member of gasworld’s Editorial Advisory Board, said, “Helium Shortage 4.0 can be blamed on declining or unreliable production from existing sources (most notably the BLM) and the delay of new sources such as Amur entering the market, rather than growth in demand.”
In a statement provided to gasworld today (April 19th), Kornbluth commented, ”The loss of helium production from the Haven Plant comes at a very bad time, as helium users are already struggling with the impact of Helium Shortage 4.0.”
“Helium plant outages seem to be contagious recently.”
The cause of the explosion is yet to be determined.