On January 12, the House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a bill banning the sale of oil from China’s US strategic reserve. This is evidenced by the voting results.
331 congressmen voted for the ban, while only 97 voted against it. The next step will be the consideration of the law and approval in the US Senate, after which it will go to the president for signature.
“Over the past two years, President (Joe – ed.) Biden has dried up our strategic stockpile to distract us from the war he is waging against American energy, thereby weakening our economic and strategic security. Moreover, the Biden administration sold oil from our strategic reserves to the Chinese Communist Party, which now has the largest state-controlled oil reserve in the world,” said House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise during the introduction of the bill.
According to the bill passed by the House, the sale of oil from the US strategic reserves to any Chinese companies and enterprises will be banned. The only exception will be those deliveries that are not intended for export to China.
Earlier, on December 21, 2022, the US Department of Energy announced that oil reserves in the US strategic reserve for the week to December 16 fell by 3.6 million barrels, to 378.6 million. It is noted that this is the lowest value since 1983.
Prior to that, on December 16, it became known that the US Department of Energy would begin purchasing oil to replenish the strategic reserve. The size of the initial batch of oil, which is planned to be purchased, will be up to 3 million barrels. Delivery is scheduled for February 2023. It was noted that this step is necessary to solve the problem of a significant global disruption in supply.
On October 20, the US Department of Energy put up for sale 15 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. Only 12 million barrels of sweet crude oil and 3 million barrels of sour oil entered the market from three oil storage facilities. The sale was announced by US President Joe Biden. According to him, this should help reduce the price of raw materials.
