Dingell, ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, blasted Bush for ignoring Federal Trade Commission data accumulated in the last days of the Clinton administration that indicated some oil companies "held oil off the market to benefit themselves, " ostensibly causing prices hikes.
Drillers have learned to drill horizontally into long, thin seams of shale and other rock that holds oil, instead of searching for rare underground pools of hydrocarbons that have accumulated over millions of years.
Most reserves are accumulated in U.S. dollars and the most prolific reserve accumulators over the past few years have been the oil producers and China.