Saudi Arabia is batting down the hatches for a "long and shallow” oil price war, in part to clip the wings of US shale energy companies, the Bank of America’s top commodities expert said.

Saudi Arabia led an alliance of energy producers dubbed Opec+ in April to boost supply. The decision was a U-turn for Saudi Arabia, which for years had pushed Opec+ to cut production in a bid to lift energy prices.

However, energy analysts had been warning for more than a year that Saudi Arabia was in an untenable position. The kingdom was doing the heavy lifting to keep supplies low, while other countries were benefiting from higher prices.

Saudi Arabia has also surrendered market share in Asia to Iran and Russia. “They’ve (Saudi Arabia) done this price support already by themselves for three-plus years,” Blanch said. “They’re done with that.”