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United States senators seek to harden restriction on selling reserve oil to China

Two U.S. senators introduced legislation on Thursday to solidify 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 make sure that business owned or managed by China's government do not purchase oil from the SPR.

A financing expense signed by President Joe Biden this month obstructed Chinese companies from purchasing oil, but contained an exception if the oil was not exported to China.

This bipartisan costs will make sure America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve does not fall into the hands of those trying to damage us and ensure (Chinese Communist Celebration) controlled services are not generating income by stockpiling taxpayer-subsidized oil, Ernst stated.

The expense would also obstruct the export or sale of SPR oil to nations including Russia, Venezuela and Syria, none of which have been substantial buyers of the oil.

Our enemies must not have the ability to buy oil from our SPR-- that's simply commonsense, Fetterman stated.

The desire for a hard line on China is among the few bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress. Legislators have introduced dozens of expenses looking for to address competition with China's federal government.

The problem of SPR sales to China warmed up after Biden, a. Democrat, revealed in 2022 a sale of 180 million barrels of SPR. oil, the largest ever, to tame gas rates that spiked after. Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

That year, 1 million barrels of SPR oil was offered to UNIPEC. America, a Houston-based arm of China's Sinopec. In. 2017, under previous President Donald Trump, a Republican, some. SPR oil was offered to PetroChina International, a subsidiary of. Chinese state oil business PetroChina Co Ltd.

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(source: Reuters)