Russia Increases Oil Output; Cameron Gov’t Supports Partial UK Steel Bailout

Russia said it will increase oil production without a deal with Saudi Arabia and other Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members and the U.K. has reluctantly agreed to subsidize a deal to help sell Tata Steel‘s on-the-block U.K. mills.

Russia Says It’ll Increase Oil Production

Russia said on Wednesday it was prepared to push oil production to historic highs, just days after a global deal to freeze output levels collapsed and Saudi Arabia threatened to flood markets with more crude.

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Venezuela predicted prices could crash in the next few weeks if producers failed to resume dialogue and urged that non-OPEC participants be observers at a June OPEC meeting, as the specter of oversupply loomed once more.

Cameron Government Supports Nationalizing U.K. Steel Mills

Great Britain could part-nationalize Tata Steel‘s remaining U.K. interests by taking a 25% equity stake, as part of a support package worth hundreds of millions of pounds designed to attract a buyer and save at least 10,000 jobs.

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The Conservative Cameron government, which privatized the steel and other industries under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is seen as being anxious to avoid an imminent closure of the U.K.’s biggest steel works at Port Talbot in South Wales just before a referendum on European Union membership in case of a protest vote.