2024-03-08 02:39:20
A must-pass government funding bill unveiled Sunday includes a provision that would bar China from buying oil from U.S. strategic reserves. Day.Az reports this with reference to Bloomberg.
This step became the next round of tension in relations between the two largest economies in the world, the agency notes.
Republican critics have long sought a ban on sales of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China after nearly 1 million barrels released from the reserve in 2022 were sold to Unipec America, the Houston-based unit of Chinese state oil Corp. Sinopec.
The White House has previously said the U.S. Department of Energy is required by law to sell CPR oil in a competitive auction to the highest bidder, regardless of whether it is a foreign company. Moreover, the Trump administration in 2017 sold oil to PetroChina International, a subsidiary of the Chinese state oil corporation PetroChina Co.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created after the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s and currently holds about 360 million barrels, a record low in 40 years. The cuts come after an unprecedented 180 million barrels in 2022 ordered by the Biden administration in an attempt to curb high gasoline prices amid the war in Ukraine.