Bush urges Congress to open new areas to oil drilling

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush urged Congress on Friday to act before its August break to open new areas for oil exploration in the United States to help ease record high oil prices.

"The members of Congress, particularly the Democratic leadership, must address this issue before they go home for this upcoming August break," Bush told reporters after a briefing from his economic advisers at the Department of Energy.

"They have a responsibility to explain to their constituents why we should not be drilling for more oil here in America to take the pressure off of gasoline prices," said Bush, who announced last month he favored lifting the restrictions on offshore drilling.

"One way to deal with supply problems is to increase supply here in America," said the president. "And yet the Democratic leaders of Congress just consistently block opening up these lands for exploration."

Democrats say there is no need to give oil companies protected areas to drill, because they already have 68 million acres under federal leases that have yet to be drilled.

Crude oil prices hit a record high on Friday near $147 a barrel, spurred by growing worries of threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and the possibility of a strike by Brazilian oil workers next week.

High oil prices have begun to have an impact on the U.S. economy, and Bush last month urged Congress to end a ban on offshore oil drilling in a bid to ease consumer anxiety over $4-a-gallon gasoline prices.

Bush advocated opening federal land off the U.S. East and West coasts, where oil drilling has been barred by both a presidential executive order and a congressional moratorium. He has estimated offshore drilling could yield 18 billion barrels of oil.

The president also advocated opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to drilling, as well as promoting the exploitation of oil shale in the U.S. West.

Drilling in the closed areas would not lower prices in the short-term. Experts at the Energy Department say it would take at least 10 years to bring any ANWR oil to market, and five to 10 years to develop new offshore fields.

(Editing by David Gregorio; Editing by David Gregorio)