Labarge: Helium explained

While helium helps make party balloons lighter than air, it’s also a critical element for many advanced technologies, like MRIs for healthcare, rockets for space exploration, and microchips for advanced computing.

Few places are as essential to meeting the demand for helium as ExxonMobil’s LaBarge facility in Wyoming, which provides 20% of the world’s supply. With an estimated eight decades worth of helium left to produce there, LaBarge is poised to play a significant role through the end of this century.

Helium is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, but it’s tough to find here on Earth. Its importance has grown in the past half century because it’s crucial to advanced technologies like MRIs, microchips and space exploration.

ExxonMobil’s LaBarge facility is well established as an important player for the future of carbon capture and storage. As the source of 20% of the world’s helium and with an 80-year supply remaining, it will also continue to play an important role in providing society with this critical element.

Helium’s unique traits make it both valuable and hard to source. It’s the second-lightest element on the periodic table (hydrogen is first). It cannot be combined with other substances, and it will not freeze or liquefy in Earth’s atmosphere. It also cannot be manufactured artificially. The only stable supplies of helium are found deep underground, often in pockets of natural gas. Helium production extracts and isolates the substance, making it viable for commercial use.

Extracting helium was not part of LaBarge’s original design when the facility began producing natural gas in the mid-1980s. After large quantities of helium were discovered underground, it soon became central to the facility’s operation.

Watch the video below to explore the pivotal role that helium plays at both the facility and in the world at large.

Explore more

Breakthrough carbon capture technology ready for field testing

Breakthrough carbon capture technology ready for field testing

Key takeaways:

  • We’re developing a breakthrough emissions-reduction technology.
  • Carbonate fuel cells could capture CO2 more efficiently, cost-effectively.
  • We’ll demonstrate this technology at our Rotterdam site starting in 2026.
It slices! It dices! It can combat climate change!

It slices! It dices! It can combat climate change!

Key takeaways:

  • Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a versatile climate tool.
  • CCS enables multiple solutions, including low-carbon hydrogen.
  • These solutions could reduce, or even remove, CO2 emissions.
What could an Indonesian CCS hub look like?

What could an Indonesian CCS hub look like?

Key takeaways:

  • Indonesia is evaluating a major potential carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub.
  • The hub could store approximately 3 metric gigatons of CO2
  • Indonesia is working with Singapore to develop a potential CCS value chain in Asia Pacific.
Expert spotlight: Clare Glover - working toward our net-zero ambition

Expert spotlight: Clare Glover - working toward our net-zero ambition

Key takeaways:

  • ExxonMobil leverages the skills of our people to deliver solutions such as CCS, lithium and hydrogen.
  • Expertise in oil and gas exploration is transferable to carbon capture and storage projects.
  • Geoscientist Clare Glover works on identifying locations to safely, securely and permanently store CO2 deep underground.
Weve broken ground on CO2 storage for customers

We’ve broken ground on CO2 storage for customers

In southeast Texas, in a clearing surrounded by farmland, there’s a rig drilling a well for ExxonMobil. Nothing out of the ordinary in an area accustomed to oil and gas operations. But this well is anything but ordinary. And it isn’t for oil or gas operations.