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WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The infrastructure deal struck by a group of bipartisan senators and President Joe Biden on Thursday is partially funded by a $6 billion sale from the U.S. emergency oil reserve, according to a document circulated by Republican lawmakers.
A sale of that size equals a drawdown of about 82 million barrels, based on Thursday’s price of $73 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate crude. That represents a sale of about 13% of the reserve’s current holdings of nearly 624 million barrels of oil, though if prices rise, the volume of oil would shrink.
The deal was a step forward for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Senate deal, but the battle is not over. Democrats are also working on a companion bill that will include more money to address climate fixes, but could only be passed on a party line vote in a process called reconciliation.