I agree there are other things at play here. The middle East...

I agree there are other things at play here.
The middle East Countries are really scared of the big increase in US oil production due to Shale fracking.
Oil production in the USA has increased by around 40% in two years and clearly Saudi Arabia wants to limit the amount of fracking by keeping the price low.
They will keep the price low until such a time that US oil production starts to decline again.
The problem is though that as soon as the POO increases back to maybe $80 again all the US oil companies will once again expand their new well drilling programs and the Saudi's will just flood the market again with surplus oil to slow them down again.
Its a game of chicken to protect market share and the problem is that the Middle East countries have very deep pockets.

These are some stats that you may find interesting.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/global_oil.cfm