Oil prices rallied on Monday, with U.S crude up as much as 3 percent, amid a jump in gasoline prices and on concerns that U.S. crude production may slow as drilling steadily declines.
Catch 22 with low oil prices. All of the oil that can be extracted cheaply has already been gotten. New sources of oil cost more to drill and extract than they can sell it for so of course drilling slows down, it's not profitable. As for them purposely damaging their own refineries, I am quite sure the repair costs and loss of volume cost far more than the gains they see from the uptick in price.