The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment to an annual defense bill on Thursday that would prohibit exports to China of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
As voting continued, the tally was 84 to 14 in favor of the measure, beyond the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to add the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, legislation that sets policy for the Department of Defense that is expected to be passed later this year.
The desire for a hard line on China is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the divided U.S. Congress, and members of Congress have introduced dozens of bills seeking to address competition with China’s communist government.
The issue of SPR sales to China heated up after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, announced the sale last year of 180 million barrels from the SPR to tame oil prices that rose due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The sale pushed levels in the SPR to the lowest in 40 years. Critics in Congress say the low level reduces U.S. energy security even though the country produces much more oil than it did in 1983, thanks to advances in fracking.
The Biden administration has no plans to conduct further sales from the SPR at this time but has begun to buy back some oil. The pace has been slowed by two of the four SPR sites in Texas in Louisiana being down for maintenance until late this year.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Timothy Gardner, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)