Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1945-03-31

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conservation and future use.
Completion of a new 32-mile
helium pipeline between the Excl
and Amarillo (Texas) helium plants
of the bureau, together with pipe
line connections to the Cliffside
field near Amarillo, will permit the
use of this natural underground
storage place for the helium not
needed now by military and govern
mental agencies and not required
for commercial distribution.
Although the helium piped back
into the ground must be repurified
later when it is withdrawn, the gas
from the cache will be richer in
helium content, the processing time
will be reduced, and there will be
immediate supplies of this valuable,
lightweight gas on short notice
Since 1928, the famed Cliffside
field has produced more than IL
billion cubic feet of natural gas
more than enough to supply Wash
ington, d. C., the nations capital,
with gas for more than year. Mil
lions of cubic feet of helium have
been extracted from this gas, and
up until the present war the field
produced by the bureau of mines.
In using this vast potential stor-
age space, the helium will be in
jected under pressure into one of
the IL producing wells of the Cliff
side field Practically all of the
helium to be returned to the ground
win come from the Excl plant, a
few miles north of Amarillo, where
the bureau extracts helium from
natural gas flowing to industrial
and commercial plants The amount
of helium obtained depends upon
the ebb and flow of gas to these
plants, and il fluctuateS with sea-
Sonal demands. Limited storage ia
cilities have made it necessary to
allow large quantities of this nat
ural gas to go to market still con-
tanning helium, which was lost for
ever.
The Exell-Amarillo pipe line-the
second of its kind constructed by
the bureau-will serve two pur-
poses in the helium storage and
conservation program, according to
DR.. R. r. Sayers, director of the
bureau of mines. 1t will carry the
excess helium from the Excl plant
to the Cliffside well via pipeline
connection near Amarillo, and it
will transport helium from Excl to
the Amarillo plant for loading into
tank cars. In addition, the produc-
ton capacity of the Amarillo plant
will not be limited to gas from the
original Cliffside field, but will be
increased MANIFOLD by processing
the high-purity helium from the
underground.
The bureau of mines completed
the first high-pressure helium trans
port pipeline In March, 1914, when
90-mile line was opened between
the bureaus Navajo helium plant
near Shiprock, N. NJ, and the load
ing terminal near Gallup, N. M. This
line was designed primarily to ia
cilitate the transportation of heliun
and marked the first time that such
a valuable gas as helium was han
died in cross-country pipelines.
In constructing the two-inch
Amarillo-Exell line, several new
features were embodied, amons
which was the relatively new meth
cd of pressure welding. In this ma
chine process, which does not re
quire welding rods, the connecting
ends of the pipe are heated to weld
ing temperature and forced togeth
er by hydraulic pressure to form {
dense and uniform weld
BY this process virtually an I'm
broken two-inch cylinder was ex
tended for 80 miles, under rivers
through valleys and over elevations
But before being coated anC
wrapped to minimize corrosion, the