I found this comment on a forum that spells it out real simple: >Oil prices are based on futures. They are bought and sold based upon anticipated future value, which in turn, reflect anticipated future supply. >Pipeline was shut down. Oil Leases were cancelled under Biden, and no new oil drilling was allowed even if you HAD a lease. To expand, oil drilling leases usually have an automatic 2 year contract renewal if the company is doing good and the government approves it. Typically the government approves it. However, under Biden, companies were unwilling to expend vast amounts of capital UTILIZING a lease that had been granted under Trump but which could be held up by Biden's White House Regulatory systems and might not get renewed anyway. This was one of Biden's campaign promises: https://youtu.be/Slszva6kk90 https://youtu.be/xCMywyoySxk >Future oil supplies that were anticipated to be present are not present, and so the price of gas fluctuates as the lower supply moves into markets where demand has stayed the same or increased. >It didn't reduce itself. Environmentalist policy from the Biden White House reduced it and market forces took over from there in your basic P1Q1 graph.