Tumbling crude oil prices have started the clock ticking on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota’s oil producers. The countdown, which started this week, holds the promise of a silver lining of sorts for oil producers and their contractors in the No. 2 oil-producing U.S. state, many of whom have struggled with a roughly 50 percent drop in oil prices since last June. North Dakota officials designed the tax waiver in 1987 to encourage drilling. Here’s how it works: North Dakota waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below $52.59 per barrel for five consecutive months. For January 2015, […]