North Dakota regulators approved a plan on Thursday to give oil producers an extra year to bring a new well online, a change designed to give the energy industry breathing room during the crude price downturn. Oil producers will now have up to two years to hydraulically fracture, or frack, and start producing from a well that has been drilled. Under previous standards, producers had only one year. Each well must still receive individual approval. Nearly 1,000 wells in the state are nearing their one-year deadline and were in danger of being forcibly plugged by regulators. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder ; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )