Lenders slashed a Denver energy company’s credit line to less than its outstanding balance, in one of the harshest cuts yet to a U.S. oil producer’s collateral-backed loans. Emerald Oil EOX -24.45 % Inc., which produces oil in North Dakota and Montana, said late Monday that its lenders have reduced its credit by 40%, to $120 million. It is in talks with those banks about how to pay back the roughly $20 million by which it is now overdrawn and is trying to find alternative financing, the company said. The credit-line cut is the second for Emerald this year and comes amid the second of a twice-annual review by banks of the oil-and-gas reserves that serve as collateral for loans. Over the last year as oil prices plummeted, banks have been reducing the amount they lend to companies across the country. “It looks as if the borrowing base bogeyman […]