By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were slightly lower in Asian trade Thursday with sellers gaining the upper hand in Brent amid signs of progress in Iran-U.S. nuclear talks and ahead of central bank announcements in Europe. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $94.73 a barrel at 0603 GMT, down $0.07 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.34 to $104.90 a barrel. Brent crude extended losses as markets wait for announcements by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank later Thursday, as any changes in monetary policy will affect the euro and oil prices. The premium of Brent crude over Nymex WTI has dropped to around $10.10 a barrel. A lot of traders have significant positions in the Brent-WTI spread and are probably liquidating their positions as the spread narrows, Ken Hasegawa, commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan said by phone. He said the weakening of the front-month backwardation in Brent--the premium of the December contract over the January contract--is also putting some pressure on Brent crude oil. Also weighing on Brent futures were expectations of a breakthrough in nuclear talks between Iran and Western countries that may ease sanctions and return Iranian oil to the market. U.S. and Iranian officials said a confidence-building deal on curbing Tehran's nuclear activities could be forged as early as this week in a new round of negotiations in Geneva starting Thursday. Under the new deal Iran may pause its nuclear program in return for a suspension of some Western sanctions, with the possibility of an initial one-time relief that may unfreeze as much as $50 billion in oil export revenue for Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal. Nymex West Texas Intermediate had surged in overnight floor trade after U.S. oil stockpiles rose less than expected and data showed a surprisingly large draw in gasoline and heating oil stocks. Analysts said it appears odd that the Nymex crude price jumped while gasoline and heating oil contract prices stayed unchanged. "The price moves may be anticipating future stock patterns with the imminent end to seasonal refinery maintenance likely to lead to increased product inventories at the expense of crude," BNP Paribas said in a note. "It remains to be seen if bulls can keep it up. We have our doubts," energy consulting firm The Schork Group said in a note. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for December--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 20 points to $2.5460 a gallon, while December heating oil traded at $2.8677, 19 points lower. ICE gasoil for November changed hands at $898.00 a metric ton, down $7.00 from Wednesday's settlement.

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