In riposte to Riyadh, Russia says it is prepared to ramp up oil output

Moscow

RUSSIA said on Wednesday that 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.

Venezuela predicted that prices could crash in the next few weeks if producers failed to resume dialogue and urged that non-Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) participants be observers at a June Opec meeting, as the spectre of oversupply loomed once more.

Opec member Venezuela and top non-Opec producer Russia had been the main proponents of the output freeze deal, in the making since February, until it collapsed on Sunday in Doha after Riyadh said that it would not sign unless Iran took part. The deal had been meant to help the market rebalance by removing a large chunk of oversupply and a stockpile g…