Sherhan Gas Plant and Panhandle Helium Plant

The Sherhan Gas Plant is a natural gas refinery operated by DCP Midstream, a large gas processing and pipeline company. It is located just inside Texas, at the border of Oklahoma. A 37-mile-long pipeline spur links the plant to the Federal Crude Helium Pipeline, which connects to the Exell Helium Plant, and the Federal Helium Reserve, as Sherhan sometimes supplies crude helium to the system. Next to the DCP gas plant is a dedicated helium facility, the Panhandle Plant, owned and operated by Air Products, one of three industrial gas companies that dominate the helium industry in the United States. Air Products was founded in Detroit in 1940, and is now based in Allentown, Pennsylvania (both steel towns, and as like other industrial gas companies, oxygen was its main business, used for steel plants and other industries). Air Products was also the primary supplier of hydrogen for NASA, and ICBMs. Today, as a diversified, global industrial gas company, Air Products has nine billion dollars in annual sales, 750 production facilities, 16,000 employees, and 1,800 miles of pipelines. This is one of two major helium refineries in the USA owned by the company.