Saudi-Arabia and others fund their regime and frankly, standard of living, primarily through oil profits, in the same way that Google finances self-driving cars R&amp;D and other projects through ads.<p>So sure, they can profitably extract oil at $20 price point, but that doesn&#x27;t pay for their state budget. They really need a price at $80+. Meanwhile, western producers don&#x27;t care very much; if the price is high, they can export, if the price is low, that massively benefits their other industry while the oil part hibernates.