US senators seek to harden ban on selling reserve
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By Reuters
March 21, 2024
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S. senators introduced legislation on Thursday to harden the ban on selling crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China.
The bill, introduced by Senators Joni Ernst, a Republican and John Fetterman, a Democrat, would ensure that companies owned or controlled by China's government do not buy oil from the SPR. Senators Bob Casey and Sherrod Brown, both Democrats, and Tom Cotton, a Republican, also joined as co-sponsors.
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FORBES
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2023,
China is increasingly looking like the top beneficiary of President Joe Biden’s decision to sell down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to lower domestic fuel prices.
Chinese-owned companies have lapped up oil from America’s emergency stockpile since the Biden administration decided to sell 180 million barrels last year to lower prices ahead of the midterm elections.
The SPR, which has a capacity of around 700 million barrels, currently has about 372 million barrels stored in salt caverns along Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. That’s down from 594 million barrels, or nearly 40 percent, from a year ago.
The SPR was created to protect the United States from oil shortages and price spikes caused by supply disruptions, but Biden’s historic drawdown for political reasons sacrificed national energy security at a time when Russia’s war with Ukraine could have induced just that sort of supply emergency.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daneberhart/2023...r-beijing/