UNITED STATES—On July 22, the Institute of Energy Research (IER) reported that the Biden Administration per the Department of Energy (DOE) sold China nearly one million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The IER reported that close to six million barrels of oil, four million were sold to China in November 2021. The oil was sold for $63 per barrel, which is the equivalent of an $8 discount per barrel.

In April 2022, the DOE sold 950,000 barrels of oil to China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Company Ltd. (UNIPEC). Unipec is China’s largest trading company and one of the world’s leading trading supply companies.

In July 2022, the DOE sold an additional 950,000 barrels to China for approximately $119 a barrel equaling $113 million.

China purchased large quantities of oil from the U.S. SPR for its own reserves since prices were low due to early lockdowns from the coronavirus pandemic.

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) announced that he joined Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on his website introducing the No Emergency Crude Oil for Foreign Adversaries Act to ensure that U.S. oil in the SPR is not exported to U.S. advisories.

“While Oklahomans are forced by this Administration’s bad policies to pay more for gas and diesel, Biden continues to block US energy production. Now he’s outrageously selling our emergency oil supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to nations like China. This is absolutely unacceptable. We should help American families afford gas and groceries by increasing domestic production, rather than handing over our emergency reserves to bad-actor nations,” said Senator Lankford.

“America’s strategic petroleum reserve protects our country during national emergencies. Selling of American oil to countries that hate us undermines the security that the oil reserve is supposed to deliver, and we can’t let it happen again,” said Senator John Kennedy.

On July 21, Democrats voted against the Republicans amendment that would stop the U.S. DOE from releasing American Strategic Oil Reserves to China.

On July 26, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that Biden would be releasing a million barrels of oil a day [from SPR].