A major Republican caucus in the US House of Representatives has unveiled plans for another massive filibuster-proof bill that, among many other measures, would provide up to $1.1bn to purchase "discounted" Venezuelan crude for delivery to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The Republican Study Committee, which represents 190 of the 218 Republicans in the House, unveiled a framework on Tuesday for a budget reconciliation bill they say would produce $1 trillion in savings over the next decade. The Republican-controlled Congress used the same budget process last year to enact sweeping tax cuts and energy policy changes, and some Republicans want to use it again to pass policies that failed to make it into the first bill.
"President Trump has supercharged our economy, and now it's our time in Congress to act to codify what he has done," Republican Study Committee chairman August Pfluger (R-Texas) said.
The budget framework seeks hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to social programs, in addition to putting limits on what it calls costly regulations, imposing "royalty-style fees" on environment lawsuits, eliminating some permitting requirements, and codifying Trump's deregulatory actions.
The framework also seeks $1.1bn to partially refill the SPR "in whole or in part with discounted Venezuelan oil made available by Operation Absolute Resolve", Trump's surprise military raid in the South American country on 3 January.
Even at a discounted price of $50/bl, $1.1bn in funding would only buy 22mn bl of crude for the SPR, which now has 300mn bl of spare storage. US energy secretary Chris Wright has suggested that expanded Venezuelan oil production could help refill the SPR primarily by reducing global oil prices.
"That makes it easier to fill our Strategic Petroleum Reserve back up, which the president is committed to do and we'll get done," Wright said in an interview on Fox News on 11 January.
US oil industry officials say the type of crude being produced in Venezuela might not necessarily be a good fit for long-term storage in the SPR, which injects and withdraws crude from massive underground salt caverns. Oil industry officials say the extra-heavy sour crude that Venezuela produces could be held in storage at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, rather than the SPR, or refined.
"The grade of Venezuelan crude does have a higher sulfur content than the current SPR can take," American Petroleum Institute president Mike Sommers said. "There are some logistical issues about the SPR that make it difficult for it to just take in Venezuelan crude."
House Republicans hold a razor-thin majority that could make it hard to enact a second reconciliation bill, particularly with moderate Republicans facing a tough political environment ahead of the midterm elections in November. Trump administration officials say there are other ways to refill the SPR. Wright said on 8 January he was looking at "creative" ways to refill the SPR without additional congressional appropriations.
