TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures were steady on Monday after settling down slightly on Friday, taking cues from a slump in consumer confidence in the United States.
FUNDAMENTALS
* NYMEX crude for September delivery
The front-month contract lost $1.50, or 1.73 percent, last week, but it has recovered from a $75.71 low, the weakest since an intraday low of $75.60 on Sept. 29.
* London Brent crude for September delivery
Brent lost $1.34, or 1.23 percent, last week, but recovered from its $98.74 low.
* Oil futures and equities markets were buffeted at the start of last week, after the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's.
The weekly U.S. oil inventory report lifted oil, showing a surprise sharp drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and slips in refined product stocks.
* Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions on NYMEX to the lowest in over eight months in the week to Aug. 9, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.
* Tropical Storm Gert strengthened slowly on Sunday on its course towards Bermuda and forecasters said the global reinsurance hub could expect increased winds, rain and surf when the storm passes on its eastern side.
Gert, the seventh named storm of what is proving as predicted to be an active 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, formed earlier on Sunday but its forecast ocean track will keep it well away from the heavily populated U.S. east coast.
* Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a ruptured North Sea pipeline continued to leak oil on Saturday and that it had been seeping crude into the sea for two days before the company declared it.
Shell said it was continuing to reduce pressure in the pipeline on Saturday, reducing the flow of oil.
* Iran hopes oil deliveries to India will return to a normal level now a long-running payment problem has been resolved, the head of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Co. said in an interview published on Sunday.
Talking to the semi-official Fars news agency, Mohsen Ghamsari, confirmed that all Indian customers had started to pay debts that had built up over the year and said if there had been a slowdown in supply in August due to the dispute, that was now over.
* Iran reiterated to China on Saturday it could take back control of a gas field being developed by its national oil company unless it speeds up investment, one week after the new Iranian oil minister said no foreign contractors were needed.
"Ultimatums will certainly be given to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) if the delays in developing phase 11 of South Pars continues," Ahmad Qalebani, Head of National Iranian Oil Co.(NIOC) was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday. But the market was down for the week and posted its worst three-week decline since March 2009 when it hit 12-year lows.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 125.71 points, or 1.13 percent, to 11,269.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 6.17 points, or 0.53 percent, to 1,178.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 15.30 points, or 0.61 percent, to 2,507.98.
* The dollar stood largely steady against the euro and the yen on Monday.
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Monday: (Time in GMT)
- 2350 - Japan GDP/Q2
- 1230 - US NY Fed manufacturing/Aug
- 1300 - US Foreign buying, T-bonds/Jun
- 1400 - US NAHB housing market indx/Aug
- Italy Mrkt Holiday (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Joseph Radford)