I feel like I recall watching something where an oil exec literally said they were doing this. He was basically saying this was a way to get some profits back after they lost a ton of money during the lockdowns.
Oil industry profits got vaporized by the decline in prices in the aftermath of the shale revolution. Prices fell sharply from 2014 to 2016. So after this, capital discipline became the watchword. That meant they wouldn't overinvest in new wells, keeping supply constrained. While oil futures had some really weird behavior during the lockdowns, the market demand for capital discipline proceeded it.
