TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures headed higher on Monday as tropical storm Irene, downgraded from a hurricane, swept through Manhattan, but the gains were limited as most oil refiners weathered the worst of its fury.
FUNDAMENTALS
* NYMEX crude for October delivery
But the gains were limited after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stopped short on Friday of detailing further action to spur a flagging economy.
Last week, front-month crude gained $3.11 or 3.78 percent, snapping a four-week losing streak.
* London Brent crude for October delivery
Last week, Brent rose $2.74 or 2.52 percent, extending gains to a second straight week.
* Tropical storm Irene left at least 15 dead, as many as 3.6 million customers without electricity and thousands of downed trees. It forced the closure of New York's mass transit system and the cancellation of thousands of flights.
Most U.S. oil refiners, terminals and pipelines along the U.S. East Coast weathered the storm, downgraded from hurricane levels early on Sunday morning, while a few shut down operations or ran at reduced rates.
U.S. nuclear facilities look to resume operations after Irene passes.
* Libya's battered oil towns are struggling to get back to work after months of back-and-forth clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi along the Mediterranean coast.
Rebel authorities have called on oil workers to return to their jobs to get the country's economic lifeline flowing again but there are few signs of an imminent return to production, and many workers remain too afraid to come back.
* Al Qaeda's new second-in-command was killed in Pakistan, U.S. officials said on Saturday, in a major blow to the group still reeling from the death of Osama bin Laden.
* The IMF's updated forecasts to be released next month do not foresee a global recession but risks have risen, a senior IMF official said on Friday.
"I can say that our base case is certainly not a recession," IMF First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky told CNBC television. "There's no doubt, however, that risks have risen given the weak performance in many economic data in the last few months," he said.
* U.S. crude oil speculators on two rival exchanges differed in their view of the market last week, raising net longs on NYMEX but cutting them on the UK Intercontinental Exchange.
Money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions on NYMEX in the week to Aug. 23 by 521 to 165,897 contracts, a weekly report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.
MARKETS NEWS
* U.S. stocks are setting up for another turbulent week, and while Irene passed with less damage than had been feared in many areas, the storm's impact on public transit near Wall Street could depress trading volumes.
August is shaping up as the worst month for stocks since February 2009, partly on the belief that the U.S. economy was headed for a double-dip recession.
For the month so far, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 7.1 percent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index is down 8.9 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index is down 10 percent, still in correction mode.
* The dollar remained soft on Monday after Bernanke speech on Friday.
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Monday: (Time in GMT)
- N/A Germany CPI prelim/Aug
- 0400 US Dallas Fed PCE
- 0800 Italy consumer confidence/Aug
- 1230 US Personal income, spending/Jul
- 1230 US Midwest manufacturing/Jul
- 1300 ECB President to give speech
- 1400 US Pending home sales/Jul (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)