Russia's January oil production at 10.66 million bpd

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MOSCOW, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Oil production in Russia edged down in January to 10.66 million barrels per day (bpd) from 10.67 million bpd in December, Energy Ministry data showed on Monday.

Russia is the world's top oil producing nation, and its 2014 oil output hit a post-Soviet record high monthly average of 10.58 million bpd.

Some of Russia's top oil firms, including Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, have been hit by Western sanctions which have limited their ability to borrow globally and denied them access to technologies essential to develop the Arctic, deep water or shale oil.

Oil and gas condensate production in Russia stood at 45.071 million tonnes in January, while gas production was at 62.923 billion cubic metres, of which Gazprom produced 43.54 billion cubic metres.

The data showed that Gazprom Neft, Bshneft and output from production-sharing agreements supported oil production.

Russian oil pipeline exports in January stood at 4.34 million bpd compared to 3.25 million bpd in December 2014, when exports were down from usual volumes because companies were exporting less as they waited for lower export duties.

Russian officials have played down worries that domestic oil output could be severely hit by sanctions or weaker oil prices, saying the country could lose a maximum of around 1 million bpd because of 'natural' decline. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, editing by Timothy Heritage)