NASA Helium Procurement IDIQ

NASA Kennedy Space Center established this Master IDIQ for agency-wide helium procurement in gas and liquid form on October 1, 2014, with ordering closed as of September 30, 2019. The vehicle is no longer active and cannot support new work.

The IDIQ awarded 36 delivery orders over its five-year ordering window, generating $54 million in combined potential value with $53.5 million obligated—99 percent utilization. Task-order activity peaked in 2019 with 9 orders placed, following 6 orders in 2018 and 7 in 2016, indicating strong late-cycle demand across most of the vehicle's lifecycle.

Competition is highly concentrated. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. dominates by potential value, holding $42.9 million across 8 orders (approximately 79 percent of combined potential value), while Messer LLC holds $11.1 million across 27 orders (approximately 21 percent). A single order to Linde Gas & Equipment Inc. carried no obligated dollars. Air Products captured the vehicle's largest single award—a $42.7 million delivery order for Kennedy Space Center helium supply running through September 2019—alongside other major awards to Stennis Space Center ($4.5 million) and Marshall Space Flight Center ($504 thousand). Messer's volume derived from numerous small orders under $500 thousand each.

Customer concentration favors Johnson Space Center, which placed 15 of 36 orders (41 percent), though its combined potential value of $1.4 million represented only 2.6 percent of total vehicle value. Glenn Research Center issued 7 orders worth $261 thousand, followed by Langley Research Center (3 orders, $8 thousand), Shared Services Center (3 orders, $92 thousand), and Ames Research Center (2 orders, $23 thousand). Kennedy Space Center itself drove spending through its agency-wide master delivery order.

All 36 task orders carried no set-aside designation. Individual delivery orders ranged from under $10 thousand to over $42 million, with firm fixed price or fixed price with economic price adjustment structures dominating. Stennis and Kennedy delivered helium to multiple NASA centers, while most other orders supported individual center requirements.

This Master IDIQ is to enable the agency-wide procurement of helium in gas and liquid form.