When Bend resident Kent Couch floated 193 miles from Bend to La Grande on a lawn chair rigged with balloons in July, the gas keeping the colorful orbs afloat was his largest expense — around $2,400 for 49 tanks of helium to fill the more than 100 oversized balloons.

The price of this lighter-than-air gas has jumped in the past year, as production plants throughout the world face shutdowns or maintenance issues and as demand swells in the high-tech, aerospace, welding and medical fields, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. The BLM is a major supplier of crude helium to refiners in the country, which then market and sell pure helium throughout the world.

Only a fraction of helium is used for balloons and other inflatables, but Central Oregonians seeking the gas already are seeing prices that are 15 percent to 30 percent higher, helium distributors say.

“It will eventually get so expensive that we won’t see a big consumption for helium for pleasure,” said Wayne Barker, brand manager of Norco Inc., a Bend welding and medical gas supplier.

A birthday party that last year had 50 helium balloons could only get five balloons for the same price, Barker said, adding that the average tank of helium costs $20.

Mike Cleveland of Airgas in Bend said his industrial gas supply company has implemented a surcharge on helium to recover some of the cost increases. A 200-cubic-foot cylinder of helium one year ago cost between $50 and $60, Cleveland said, and now goes for at least $80. Larger cylinders, those holding 300 cubic feet of helium, are going for more than $120, he said.

At The Paper Factory in Bend, employees have been instructed to stop handing out free helium balloons to children and stop using helium for display balloons, said manager E.J. Hagedorn.

While most Northwest Paper Factory stores haven’t had trouble getting their helium tanks, stores on the East Coast are having problems, Hagedorn said, due to higher demand.

“It’s almost a daily issue,” she said, adding that while prices are surging for retailers, her Airgas supplies of helium haven’t been disrupted and prices haven’t yet jumped for consumers. Helium costs 45 cents for an 11- to 12-inch balloon, she said.

But the company’s corporate headquarters in New Jersey and California are cutting in-store costs, using helium for customers instead of for decorations.

“Instead, we’re supposed to blow them up with air and hang them from the ceiling,” Hagedorn said of Paper Factory balloons she uses for promotions. “They know (a helium shortage) is coming.”

Helium plants expected to be up and running abroad have been delayed in the past year, according to the BLM, and some U.S. helium plants have struggled with operational problems and closures. Additionally, a winter storm in Kansas and Oklahoma damaged power lines to two major refiners in the Midwest.

Demand in countries like China, where the electronics industry is growing, is putting extra pressure on the limited helium supply.

Helium is an inert gas with a very low boiling point and high thermal conductivity, according to the BLM. It is used for liquid propellants in the space industry and in semiconductor chip manufacturing processes. Liquid helium also is used to cool magnets used in magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, equipment at hospitals.

Before the 20th century, not much was known about helium, according to the BLM. It was discovered in 1903 in natural gas, with some of the richest sources existing under the Texas panhandle.e_SClBThe BLM warns that inhaling helium, which produces a high-pitched voice, is not a good idea.

“Because helium is less dense than air, inhaling it creates the potential for (a) collapsed lung,” according to a BLM press release. “Really.”