The price for crude oil next year should be around the so-called Goldilocks number for shale oil drillers in the United States, OPEC economists said. The Goldilocks scenario refers to a price point that’s not so high that it encourages a strong drive in crude oil exploration and production, but not low enough to curtail capital spending and operations. Economists with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in their monthly market report for October that the price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for the price of oil, could be in a range between $50 per barrel and $55 per barrel for 2018. “A rise above that level would encourage U.S. oil producers to expand their drilling activities, otherwise […]