> Is that what you consider manipulation, supply and demand?
If you can control the supply to manipulate the price, yes...
Do you believe that suppliers of products should be forced to produce and sell at a low price?
You should recognize that high prices are the cure for high prices in the oil business.
While OPEC did not increase their supply, the higher prices of the past few years created the opportunity for the US to produce more from our more expensive shale fields. That increase in supply eventually helped drive the market price down, while putting more jobs in the US. And as this article shows, it wasn’t just oil industry jobs, but real manufacturing of products in the US.