I posit the Saudis and Russians deliberately maintained elevated production levels into the COVID shutdowns in an attempt to handicap US energy production. Bankruptcies in the US ensued. Wells were shut. Supply went offline. Now we're begging them to turn the wells back on, and they're not interested.
Evidence to ponder for the unbelievers.
[0]: In March 2020, Saudis and Russians can't come to an agreement about cutting output into a global shutdown (this was clearly a show)
https://www.csis.org/analysis/oil-price-war
[1]: Trump pushes Saudis to cut production into negative oil, US bankruptcies ensue
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-trump-saudi-sp...
[2]: Biden tells Saudis to boost production amid $100 oil
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-officials-ask-saudi-boost...
[3]: At all time high prices, OPEC is still behind its production targets.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-oil-output-marc...
The beauty of this strategy is that is creates the continued fear that at some point the Saudis will turn on the tap and oil can go sub $60 again (see futures prices at the long end of the curve), so the US is still wary of investing in oil and gas to deal with the shortage.
Everyone seems to forget the Saudis created an oil crisis in the 70s for political gain once. How we are not talking about this today more actively is beyond me.