U.S. lawmakers gear up to block Trump plan to slash oil stockpile
Source: Reuters
COMMODITIES | Tue May 23, 2017 | 6:50pm EDT
U.S. lawmakers gear up to block Trump plan to slash oil stockpile
By Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON
A Trump administration plan to sell off half the U.S. emergency crude oil stockpile to help balance the budget faces opposition in Congress, with lawmakers from both parties worried the proposal would undermine the drilling industry and make the country vulnerable to supply shocks.
The White House's 2018 budget proposal, sent to Congress on Tuesday, proposes raising nearly $16.6 billion by 2027 by gradually selling millions of barrels from the reserve, which now holds about 688 million barrels of oil in underground caverns in Texas and Louisiana. News of the proposal had briefly sent oil prices tumbling on concern it would oversupply the market, but prices recovered and finished slightly higher on hopes that OPEC and other countries would extend supply cuts.
"We should not be selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now," said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, a leading oil producer state. "We should use the SPR for emergencies, and selling now would disrupt the markets."
The SPR sell-off plan is part of a broader White House proposal to balance the U.S. budget that is meant as starting point to debate policy with Congress - which will ultimately pass its own version.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-energy-idUSKBN18J35Z
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