Sherri McDaniel is already feeling the sting of the drop in crude oil prices from more than $115 per barrel in June to less than $50 in early January. She is president of ATEK Access Technologies, a small Minneapolis firm that owns TankScan, a wireless monitoring system that keeps track of fluid levels in oil tanks. Oil companies that use the system are starting to postpone orders, as they take a cautious approach to spending. “In the oil fields, they are starting to pull back pretty heavily,” McDaniel said. “They are literally taking tanks and laying them down on their sides.” As a result, she explained, “we have a number of big orders that are temporarily on hold.” A derrick hand works on an oil rig drilling into the Bakken shale formation outside Watford City, North Dakota. Getty Images ATEK Access Technologies is one of many small and midsize […]