While Americans suffer through high gas prices, President Joe Biden sent more than 5 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves to foreign countries, Reuters reported. There were 950,000 barrels of U.S. oil sold to a Chinese state-owned gas company that has financial ties to a private equity firm that was co-founded by Hunter Biden, according to a new report.
In April, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it was releasing 30 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The “emergency sale” was “conducted as part of a coordinated action with our international allies and partners to provide a wartime bridge that will support American consumers and the global economy in response to Vladimir Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine.”
Despite the Strategic Petroleum Reserve being at its lowest mark since 1986, the Biden administration sold oil to foreign nations last month.
The Department of Energy received 126 bids from 16 companies for the “price-competitive sale of 30 million barrels of SPR crude oil.” The Department of Energy awarded “price-competitive” oil to 12 companies – one of which was Unipec America, Inc.
Unipec is the trading division of China Petrochemical Corporation – which is also known as the Sinopec Corp. The Biden administration sold nearly 1 million barrels of “price-competitive” oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Sinopec – which is wholly owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
BHR Partners – a private equity firm Hunter Biden co-founded in 2013 – bought a $1.7 billion stake in Sinopec Marketing in 2015, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The New York Post reported, “BHR is primarily owned by Chinese investors, including the state-controlled Bank of China.” BHR claimed to have managed the equivalent of $2.4 billion.
Chris Clark, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, told the New York Times in December that his client “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles.” Skaneateles LLC is Biden’s personal company.
However, the Washington Examiner reported in March that Hunter was still listed as a part-owner of the firm.
“But business records from China’s National Credit Information Publicity System accessed Tuesday continue to identify Skaneateles as a 10% owner in BHR, and Washington, D.C., business records continue to list Biden as the only beneficial owner of Skaneateles,” the report stated.
The outlet noted, “It’s possible that China’s business registry hasn’t yet been updated to reflect a potential transfer or sale of Skaneateles’s 10% stake in BHR to another party.”
In October 2019, Hunter vowed “not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies” if his father was elected president.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reacted to the report of Biden shipping oil to the CCP on Twitter.
“Pres Biden reportedly sold oil [from] American reserves to China’s Sinopec which Hunter Biden may still [be] tied to via his financial ventures in China. If report [is] correct that’s OUTRAGEOUS. Sen Johnson & I highlighted these connections to communist regime in our 2020 report + bank records,” Grassley tweeted.
“At a time when Americans must pay record price$ at pump Pres Biden should NOT [be] selling our strategic oil reserves to communist China,” he added. “This misguided/harmful action is latest example of Biden’s failed energy policies + Needs further scrutiny -[especially] if his son’s China biz could benefit.”
In September 2020, Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released a report titled: “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns.”
The White House has continuously dodged questions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment on an alleged voicemail from President Biden to his son that discussed a New York Times article about Hunter’s business associations with a Chinese oil tycoon.