(Reuters) - Speculators were dumping oil even before consumer governments said last week they would release strategic oil stocks, sending prices tumbling, data showed on Monday, and traders said the exodus from the market could continue for some time. Hedge funds and other money managers cut bets in Brent and gas oil dramatically in the week to June 21, reducing net long positions in the benchmark North Sea crude oil by more than 40 percent. InterContinental Exchange (ICE) (ICE.N) figures showed money managers -- most hedge funds and other money managers -- reduced their net-long positions in Brent futures and options by 33,975 to 47,319 contracts. Net managed money longs in ICE gas oil were reduced by 10,179 to 31,143. "Large speculators are cutting their exposure to oil," said Olivier Jakob, oil market consultant at Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. "It is a big reduction in positions." Analysts say market data suggest oil speculators have not taken on a significant number of new net-long positions for around 10 weeks. Jakob said the oil sell-off probably reflected an anticipation of the end of the second round of U.S. economic stimulus, also known as quantitative easing II, or QE2. He said large speculators still had a very high level of net-long positions by historical standards and the exodus from the market could continue for some time. "As of last Tuesday, the large speculators were still net long 210,000 crude contracts, so there is still some room for unwinding," Jakob said SHOCK Monday's data release is only the second time that ICE has published detailed weekly figures on trading positions in futures and options. The ICE data is issued in the same format as the weekly Commitments of Traders report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which covers U.S. contracts in futures and options. The ICE uses the CFTC's four categories of participants: producers, swap dealers, money managers and other reportables. CFTC data on Friday also showed the surge of investor money that flowed into the oil market as the crisis in Libya developed had been almost completely unwound prior to the decision by industrial nations to tap strategic reserves. In the latest week, CFTC data showed money managers cut their net long positions in futures and options contracts by 26,092 positions in New York to 167,470, a reduction of more than 13 percent. Net longs in New York were at their lowest level since November. The weekly data from the ICE and CFTC only covers trading until last Tuesday, so does not cover Thursday's large drop in prices after the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced it was tapping emergency stocks of oil to help replace supplies lost from Libya. The surprise IEA move was designed to push oil down to help the global economy, which has been struggling with high energy prices since Libyan oil was removed from the spot market. Analysts have also seen the IEA move as intended to shock speculators out of the market after they were blamed for driving prices too high and endangering the West's economic recovery. The ICE figures indicate that an exodus of speculative money from oil was under way well before the move by the IEA. "The data show the market was already under pressure. The dissemination of news of the IEA stocks release just accentuated that trend," said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. ICE Brent futures were down 30 cents per barrel at $104.82 by 1407 GMT on Monday. Brent has lost almost a fifth of its value on spot markets since its post-2008 peak of over $127 in early April.

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