Bakken shale-oil producers are under pressure from tumbling prices to scale back their 2015 drilling plans in a region that accounts for one of every eight U.S. barrels of crude. Bakken oil fell 1 percent to $79.40 a barrel today, the first time it’s dropped below $80 in 11 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Crude prices have been declining worldwide as ample North American supplies tempered the U.S. appetite for imports and Persian Gulf producers signaled they’re prepared to keep output high to protect their market shares in Asia . Companies drilling expensive, experimental wells in frontier regions such as the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale beneath Louisiana and Mississippi will be first to feel pinched by the drop-off in prices, said Gabriele Sorbara, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets in New York . Bakken producers will soon feel the pain as well as their returns dwindle. “There is […]