When the Saudis allowed the price of their crude oil to fall, it was reported that the Saudis expected the price to fall no lower than $60 per barrel. The Saudis assumed that the average cost of production in the US shale oil fields was somewhere around $70 and that producers there would not operate for long at a loss. Insiders have said that the Saudis want to reduce competition from high cost US producers and retain their share of the US market, which came to 13% of imports in 2013, the latest figures from the
US Energy Information Agency.
