Gaseous Helium (GHe) for Navy Diving Unit, Panama City, FL

INTRODUCTION: This is a Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought notice issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Energy Aerospace – San Antonio, Texas. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals. No awards will be made from the responses to this announcement. However, responses may be used to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy for a future procurement. This notice issued by DLA Energy is to identify potential sources and solicit industry to express their capability and interest to provide Aerospace Energy products, related services, and delivery of Gaseous Helium on a f.o.b. Destination into a Government-owned tank at U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit Panama City, FL. The Government may contract for all, some, or none of the below, however it still is requesting for a potential requirement.

SCOPE OF REQUIREMENTS: The potential source shall provide all product, materials, supplies, management, tools, equipment, transportation, and labor necessary for the delivery of Gaseous Helium on a f.o.b. Destination into a Government-owned tank. The requirement also includes a miscellaneous service: Cascading of Trailer

PRODUCT: Gaseous Helium shall conform to the requirements of Type I, Grade B of specification MIL-PRF-27407E, dated 23 Apr 2024, Propellant Pressurizing Agent Helium, NSN: 9135-01-665-9551.

One copy of the Certificate of Analysis (COA) for each sample required by the specification shall be attached to the container inside the rear cabinet and shall also be submitted as an attachment to Wide Area Workflow (WAWF). 

PRODUCT DELIVERY: Product shall be delivered within 7 calendar days after receipt of an order from the appointed Delivery Scheduler. Delivery can be made Monday through Friday 0800-1600 CST. When the vendor trailer arrives, the initial offload is accomplished simply by cascading the higher-pressure vendor trailer into lower pressure flasks in the Navy’s bottle farm. When the pressures are close to equalizing, then connection is made to the vendor trailer outlet hose to the Navy owned compressors and can continue to offload gas from the trailers down to about 50 PSI. This process takes 1-3 days to complete. Customer can accommodate by having vendor trailer securely stored until pick up.

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE: Inspection for quality shall be at origin and quantity determination and acceptance shall be at destination.

ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: This potential requirement has an estimated 5-year requirement, 1 February 2026 through 31 January 2031.

ESTIMATED QUANTITIES FOR THIS POTENTIAL REQUIREMENT:

1,500,000 CF

Year 1 – 300,000 CF (1 February 2026 through 30 January 2027)

Year 2 – 300,000 CF, (1 February 2027 through 30 January 2028)

Year 3 – 300,000 CF, (1 February 2028 through 30 January 2029)

Year 4 – 300,000 CF, (1 February 2029 through 30 January 2030)

Year 5 – 300,000 CF, (1 February 2030 through 30 January 2031)

Miscellaneous Services – Cascading of Trailer – 1 EA per year (Year 1 through Year 5)

CAPABILITY STATEMENT: Interested qualified organizations should submit a capability statement for this requirement addressing the areas below. Statements should include an indication of current business size and a list of available ancillary services available as well as any technical information believed to be useful to the Government. The capability statement at a minimum shall address the potential vendor’s ability of the following:

a. Capability to fully meet the specification.  Contractors must address the Helium industry and the ability to meet all the needs for the entire period of performance.  Contractors should address previous force majeures in Helium, and how those would impact this requirement.

b. Capability to perform all the sampling/testing requirements listed in the specifications.

c. Capability and willingness to allow government quality assurance inspectors access to supplier production/load-out plant to conduct quality assurance assessments as needed.

d. Statement of ability to meet Helium needs for U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, FL.

e. Capability for a potential Federal Government Contract, your company must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1. Is your company registered in SAM, and if so, what is your company's cage code? If your company is not currently registered in SAM, would you be willing to register in the SAM system?

f. What is the size of your company? 

1. 1. What are your primary and secondary NAICS codes? 
2. 1. If you identify as a Small Business (SB), please identify your company’s small business size standard based on the primary NAICS code 325120 – Industrial Gas Manufacturing.

g. Provide a list of company Helium manufacturing fill-points/plants, to include city and state.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:  All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice shall be submitted to Contracting Officer, Leno B. Smith at leno.smith@dla.mil and Contract Specialist, Sarah Ramseur at sarah.ramseur@dla.mil.   All responses must be received by 23 April 2025 at 3:00 pm Central Time.

DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in SAM.gov. Respondents will be added to the prospective offerors list for any subsequent solicitation. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

CONFIDENTIALITY: No classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. All proprietary information should be marked as such.