You believed that? You got any idea how much money you are talking about? Forget it! Basically you are looking at an oil embargo. They could have gone back to production under trump, well in advance of the election, but they had cover with the pandemic, and did not. This time, it is not Saudi or Opec and not politics, but business 101. The profits in the industry are through the roof. Don't even think big oil wants to see the market and production of 2019 again, not with it being more expensive to push to make that level, but with profits way lower. It is a basic fundamental truth of business production, that there is better money in selling less for more, than there is in selling more for less, as higher production has much higher costs and a glut on the market empowers buyers, not sellers, forcing them to sell cheap to keep sales and cashflow, while straining logistics. You look at it politically/emotionally, but business is not about emotion. It is about a business plan operated to efficiency for return on investment.
By the way, are you aware the only months that production was higher than the average of the last couple of year including present production level was August 2019 through March 2020 when they shut it down for the pandemic and got the glut out of the system, worldwide. Other than that, it was nowhere near today's production. You are aware, we are the world's leading producer, right? Oil, our biggest export on the balance of trade worldwide, right? The numbers from the industry are out there. I like the YCharts and it isn't hard to read or understand. Here is a snapshot showing we were at 385.31 Million Barrels a day.
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But the real deal is going to the site and dragging across showing the number for any month in the graph period. Here is the link
US Crude Oil Production