50 U.S.C. § 167b — Storage, transportation, and withdrawal of crude helium

(a) Storage, transportation, and withdrawal. The Secretary may keep storing, transporting, and withdrawing crude helium, and keep running the crude-helium storage facilities that existed as of October 9, 1996, at the Bureau of Mines' Cliffside Field, along with the related pipelines and withdrawal facilities. (b) Cessation of production, refining, and marketing. Within 18 months of October 9, 1996, the Secretary had to stop producing, refining, and marketing refined helium, and had to stop every other helium-related activity previously allowed under this chapter — except for the storage, transportation, and withdrawal activities described in subsection (a). (c) Disposal of facilities. (1) In general: Within 24 months after that production shutdown, the Secretary had to label as "excess" and sell off (or otherwise dispose of) all the facilities, equipment, and other property — and any interests in them — that the government held for producing, refining, and marketing refined helium, except as described in paragraph (5). (2) Applicable law: That disposal had to follow the standard federal property-disposal rules in title 40 and most of title 41's procurement rules (with a handful of listed exceptions). (3) Proceeds: Any money the government made from selling or disposing of that property counts as money received under this chapter, to be credited to the Helium Production Fund under section 167d(e). (4) Costs: All costs of that sale and disposal — including costs of letting staff go — plus the costs of shutting down production under subsection (b), had to be paid out of the Helium Production Fund. (5) Exception: This sell-off requirement did not apply to any facilities, equipment, or property needed to store, transport, or withdraw crude helium, or needed to keep crude helium at the Cliffside Field pure and quality-controlled. (d) Existing contracts. (1) In general: Any contract that someone had already signed with the Secretary, as of October 9, 1996, to buy refined helium stayed in force until refining actually stopped under subsection (b). (2) Costs: Any costs from ending those contracts also had to be paid from the Helium Production Fund.