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Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

tomshardware.com

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Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#81

Post by forgetfreeman »

mvdwoord wrote: post #8
expedition32 wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Can not see them fuck it up more than my own government spending millions to pour concrete into our own excellent natural gas wells (while selling whatever did come out under market price to other countries), and our neighbors on the east celebrating while they blow up nuclear power plants. At least the US and Israel have a chance of improving their position in the geopolitical landscape. We are just slowly then swif…

The US appears to be ideologically committed shitting on their trade partners and ending the dollar's run as a reserve currency and you see this leading to improving it's geopolitical standing? Through what mechanism?

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#82

Post by baldeagle »

infogulch wrote: post #56
lpcvoid wrote: post #11

Great timing that the US recently sold its strategic helium supply.

BLM [(Bureau of Land Management)] completes $460M sale of federal helium reserve to private company | 12/12/2024 | https://www.eenews.net/articles/blm-completes-460m-sale-of-f... Messer Completes Acquisition of Federal Helium System from BLM | June 27, 2024 | https://www.messer-us.com/press-releases/messer-completes-ac...

BLM was required (to sell it) by Congress in the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, as the alternative was to not offer any H to the market due to the authorization to sell expiring. Sponsored by a Republican and passed basically unanimously with the proceeds used to pay of the debt (back when we cared about that)

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#83

Post by forgetfreeman »

dmix wrote: post #38
api wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the most disappointing things to me. These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. That's it. That's the best they can do. Even nominally selfish far-sighted things like genuinely funding a deep research program for life extension is not really something they're into. I mean some of them are "into" it in…

People will always keep looking to politicians to make the world better despite their terrible track record.

If they aren't doing a good job primary the hell out of them.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#84

Post by Macha »

breppp wrote: post #47
fabian2k wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as "officially closed". The moment people start shooting there, driving a ship across becomes dangerous. This was an absolutely predictable consequence of the attacks on Iran, you didn't need to wait until several tankers were burning to know these attacks were likely to happen and the strait would become essentially too risky to pass.

Back then there were only two ships attacked in the straits, and one was an Iranian shadow fleet ship. I am not sure that is "closing the straits" in any shape or form

As the houthis have long demonstrated, you can screw up shipping from the coast

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#85

Post by baldeagle »

phr4ts wrote: post #77
infogulch wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sale was completed in 2024.

For those who don't understand, Biden sold the Helium not Trump - he took office on Jan 20, 2025.

"Current law (cira 2013) requires BLM to sell off the crude helium remaining in the Federal Helium Reserve in order to repay the U.S. Treasury the $1.3 billion debt incurred creating it. This debt will be repaid this fiscal year and that, as a consequence, the helium program will terminate at the end of the current fiscal year (October 1, 2013), absent Congressional action. Currently, the Federal Helium Reserve supplies roughly 40% of domestic and 30% of global helium demand. Loss of access to the Federal Helium Reserve would result in significant disruptions to a large number of critical U.S. industries." https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/494b2f9e-c8f5-4...

Sounds like Obama kept the gas taps flowing, instead of locking it up because authorization to sell it had expired. Here is the whole record: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527/...

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#86

Post by dnautics »

baldeagle wrote: post #82
infogulch wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BLM [(Bureau of Land Management)] completes $460M sale of federal helium reserve to private company | 12/12/2024 | https://www.eenews.net/articles/blm-completes-460m-sale-of-f... Messer Completes Acquisition of Federal Helium System from BLM | June 27, 2024 | https://www.messer-us.com/press-releases/messer-completes-ac...

BLM was required (to sell it) by Congress in the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, as the alternative was to not offer any H to the market due to the authorization to sell expiring. Sponsored by a Republican and passed basically unanimously with the proceeds used to pay of the debt (back when we cared about that)

thanks obama?

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#87

Post by dnautics »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #79
bix6 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did we sell it instead of lease? This seems like something that should be in public hands.

crypto-libertarian "government bad" ideology is one hell of a drug.

well it was signed into law by obama, so there's that.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#88

Post by surgical_fire »

yread wrote: post #31
surgical_fire wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> haha yes, the grand seismic risks (economic risk in single digit percentages of the profits available) If I lived in the region I wouldn't really care if the economic risk is single digit percentage. I would prefer my house to keep standing. > they are actively and very costly going to fill them with concrete to ensure in the future (even in whatever extreme scenario) they cannot be used again. I think you are argu…

Groningen gas field produced 40 billion m3 a year. 100m3 is 1MWh, currently sold for 50 eur. So the production would generate revenue of 20 billion eur a year. Tax it at 10%, get 2B eur. Buy/build houses for 400k a piece, 5.000 a year. There are cca 10.000 houses with minor or major damage. In 2 fucking years everyone gets a new second house for free and we get cheap gas.

Not if the ground can't stay still

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#89

Post by [deleted] »

fhdkweig wrote: post #23
coreyh14444 wrote: post #16

Remember all the e/acc people telling us to vote for Trump? Some mea-culpas are in order.

Could you define the acronym "e/acc"? DDG seems to think it means: "What Does E/Acc Stand For, And What Does It Mean? E/acc stands for the phrase effective accelerationism, and it basically indicates one's personal ideological belief that artificial intelligence will one day become an all-powerful being that can fix the vast majority of humanity's problems." I don't think I have ever heard a MAGA talk about AI.

[deleted]

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#90

Post by shmeeed »

emsign wrote: post #51
trollbridge wrote: post #7

Aren’t there huge stockpiles of helium in the US? I can buy party sized tanks at Target or big tanks at the usual places like welding supply places.

Balloon gas is ~20% oxygen, so your kids don't go unconscious while doing the funny voices.

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