US President Donald Trump has in effect agreed to overlook the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in return for Saudi Arabia's help to contain oil prices and for its assistance in other areas.
These include rising production by OPEC and its allies, surging US shale output, more generous than expected waivers for Iran's exports, a deteriorating economic outlook and hedge fund selling.
The White House itself has drawn an explicit link between the killing and Saudi Arabia's posture on oil prices.
High prices penalise US motorists while low prices threaten the viability of the oil industry in politically and economically important states such as Texas.
The shale revolution has more than doubled US oil production since 2008 but it has not altered the fundamental political and economic logic.
Moreover, most US oil production is concentrated in states that already lean heavily towards his own Republican Party and are likely to vote for him again (including Texas, North Dakota, Alaska and Oklahoma).
Domestic oil and gas producers may not be happy with the president's advocacy for lower prices, but they are unlikely to support the Democratic Party's nominee in 2020. In electoral politics, oil and gas producers have nowhere else to go – leaving the president free to concentrate on winning support from oil consumers in swing states.