By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled on Thursday after global powers negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran called for a news conference, before the market pared losses on signs the talks could continue till summer.
Prices fell as much as 4 percent earlier in the session, in anticipation of an imminent end to the more than week-long talks in Lausanne, Switzerland between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
A nuclear pact for Tehran could remove Western sanctions on the OPEC nation's oil exports, bringing millions of additional Iranian crude barrels onto a market already brimming with supply.
But as trading progressed, North Sea Brent crude, the more widely-used global benchmark for oil, fell less than 3 percent after Western and Iranian officials said the talks will be extended to a June 30 deadline.
The officials said a statement was being finalized for release by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. But they were unable to confirm if the statement would contain an announcement of any agreement.
"It's just a statement," an Iranian official said.
Brent futures were down $2, or 3.6 percent, by 12:43 p.m. EDT at $55.10 a barrel, after hitting a session low of $54.45 on the news of the press conference.
U.S. crude futures were down $1.30, or 2.6 percent, at $48.79 a barrel, after falling more than $1.70 earlier.
"The announcement of the news conference certainly had bearish overtones but I also think the market overreacted and is now sitting back a little to think there is a lot more work to be done," said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute, New York.
U.S. crude rose 5 percent on Wednesday and Brent about 4 percent, rebounding from three days of losses, after U.S. government data showed the first weekly decline since January in crude production even as crude stocks hit new highs. [EIA/S]
On Thursday, separate data from the U.S. government showed crude oil exports fell to 428,000 barrels per day in February compared with 491,000 bpd in January.
Prices were also pressured earlier on Thursday by news that Russia's oil production hit new post-Soviet highs in March.
(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)