Nigeria oil output 1.6 mln bpd before latest unrest

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian crude oil production was around 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) excluding condensate before the latest Niger Delta unrest late last week, Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia said late on Monday.

Ajumogobia told Reuters that production had at one point last month dipped to as low as 1.2 million bpd but had recovered again before heavy clashes between the security forces and militants in the western Niger Delta at the end of last week.

"In April it was as low as 1.2, 1.3 million, but it recovered again," Ajumogobia said in the capital Abuja.

Nigeria's main militant group said on Monday it would blockade key waterways in the Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry, to try to prevent crude oil exports after days of military helicopter and gunboat raids on its camps.

The security forces launched an offensive against militant camps around Warri in the western Niger Delta on Friday after two oil vessels were hijacked and its soldiers were attacked, leading to the heaviest fighting in at least eight months.

Officials from state oil firm NNPC said the closure of waterways around Warri meant there could be delays to some oil shipments.