Sens. Cruz, Manchin Collaborate to Ban Strategic Oil Reserves Sales to China

The annual defense bill last week saw an amendment added that would ban oil exports from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.

The amendment, which was pushed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., passed 85-12 in the Senate on Thursday.

"We know China has been amassing the largest stockpile of crude in the world," Cruz wrote in a statement. "Nevertheless, last year, the United States sold off part of our reserves to China.

"I have been working with Sen. Manchin to prohibit such inexplicably reckless moves in a bipartisan way. We should not be selling our emergency oil reserves to our adversaries."

According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at a low of 336 million barrels.

"China, on the other hand, stockpiled oil and held back refinery production, and while China was stockpiling, one of its state-owned companies purchased over 1.4 million barrels from the United States of America, the people of our great country, from our own stock of reserves," Manchin said in a statement. "That's what we're trying to stop."

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