PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Nov 18

The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Headlines

- Bulb Energy bailout to cost UK taxpayers 6.5 billion pound - Royal Mail seeks to cut back deliveries to five days a week

- Germany warns of local oil shortages after EU ban on Russian imports - Ukraine Black Sea grain export deal extended

Overview - The taxpayer bill for failed retail energy supplier Bulb has soared to 6.5 billion pound ($7.72 billion), making it the largest state bailout since Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008.

- UK's Royal Mail has asked the government's permission to cut its letter delivery service from six to five days, as it looks to stave off a deepening financial crisis amid a long-running dispute with postal workers. - Germany has warned of local oil shortages when the EU-wide ban on Russian oil comes into force in January, in a further sign of the disruption Europe's energy crisis is wreaking on the continent's largest economy.

- Ukraine says negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to prolong a UN and Turkish brokered Black Sea grain export agreement, a crucial step to alleviating a global food crisis triggered by the conflict. ($1 = 0.8422 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)