Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Cracks ease, US Colonial outage supports

LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe slightly declined from a three-month high but remained supported by tightening of U.S. East Coast supplies due to a continued outage on the Colonial Pipeline.

* U.S. gasoline futures soared and prices at the pump in certain states have started to spike as a result of an ongoing shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, the key artery bringing gasoline and other products to the U.S. East Coast.

* Colonial Pipeline Co, operator of the largest refined products pipeline system in the United States, said on Thursday it would delay until next week the full restart of its main gasoline line bringing fuel to the East Coast after a 6,000-barrel leak in Alabama.

* Gasoline stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub dropped by 20 percent in the week to Thursday, Dutch consultancy PJK International said.

* The arbitrage from Europe to the U.S. East Coast strengthened on the U.S. outages, with several cargoes booked over the past 24 hours, according to Reuters shipping data.

* Demand from West Africa further supported.

* BP plans to shut the large crude distillation unit for up to 10 days of repairs at the company's 413,500 barrel per day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana refinery, Midwest trade sources said on Friday.

GASOLINE

* There were no in the afternoon window. There were no bids or offers.

* Some 13,000 tonnes traded earlier in the day at $483-$486 a tonne fob ARA, compared with $473 a tonne a day earlier. BP, Trafigura, Gunvor and Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) sold to Interchem, Rolympus, Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) and Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) .

* Vitol sold to Total two barges of premium unleaded gasoline at $502 a tonne fob ARA, unchanged from a day earlier.

* The October swap stood at around $465 a tonne, up from $463 a tonne a day earlier.

* Gasoline barge refining margins declined to $12.53 from $13 a barrel a day earlier.

* Brent crude oil futures were down 85 cents at $45.74 a barrel by 1707 GMT.

* U.S. October RBOB gasoline futures were up 2.9 percent at 1.4728 a gallon.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was trading at $18.91 a barrel, up from $15.37 a barrel.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* No cargoes traded.

(Reporting by Julia Payne)