Its V expensive to start and stop production. And there's some tragedy of the commons at play here too. Lots of Texas oil producers are heavily leveraged with debt. With lower prices they have to pump more to meet any obligations they have.

I think the idea that is that it also costs money to shut a well down. Like if you just turn it off, there will be more work to do later when you want to get it back up again. Not just staff, but well / drill / pump / seal / geological issues.