The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to ban the sale of oil from strategic reserves (SPR) to entities owned, controlled or influenced by the Communist Party of China.

The decision was supported by 331 members of the House, against 97 members, the U.S. media noted.

Last year, nearly 1 million barrels of oil from the SPR went to Unipec America, a "subsidiary" of China's state oil company Sinopec, which drew sharp criticism from Republicans, S&P Global noted.

Republicans accuse the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden of depleting strategic oil reserves because of political motives after an unprecedented 180 million barrels were sold from SPR over several months to combat rising energy prices caused by the situation in Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions.

As of Jan. 6, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the volume of oil in SPR was 371.58 million barrels, the lowest level since December 1983.

Now the bill to prohibit the sale of oil to the PRC must be considered and approved by the Senate; if approved, it will go to the president for signing. At the same time, analysts are doubtful that the Democrat-controlled Senate will support this initiative.