Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Cracks rise on firmer overseas demand

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose on Thursday, alongside a 2 percent rise in benchmark RBOB gasoline prices, buyoed by stronger demand to export the motor fuel to West Africa and the United States.

* A Dutch trade union representing workers at Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) 's 404,000 bpd Pernis refinery will meet on Friday to discuss its next course of action after the company rejected demands for better pay but said so far there would not be any direct strike action.

* Gasoline stocks at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub jumped 30 percent in the week to Thursday, bouncing back from a drop last week as exports to the United States, following the Colonial pipeline explosion, slowed.

* Bahrain Petroleum Company is in talks with export credit agencies to finance the estimated $5 billion expansion of its Sitra oil refinery, sources familiar with the situation said. Bapco wants to increase capacity from the current 267,000 bpd to 360,000 bpd.

* U.S. oil refiner Tesoro will buy Western Refining (Frankfurt: A0HNHH - news) for $4.1 billion to add refineries in Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota and have total capacity of over 1.1 million bpd.

* Refining margins fell in all five U.S. regional petroleum districts in the week ended Nov. 11, Credit Suisse (LSE: 0QP5.L - news) said in a weekly report on Wednesday. East Coast (Brent) region margins narrowed by $1.63 to $11.37 per barrel.

* PBF Energy (NYSE: PBF - news) 's 151,300 bpd Torrance, California, refinery was at full production on Wednesday following a fire near its alkylation unit on Tuesday.

* Refinery maintenance in Europe and Russia remained relatively high in November at 1 million barrels per day, supporting product markets, traders said.

GASOLINE

* There were no trades of benchmark Eurobob gasoline by barge in the afternoon window. On Wednesday, there was a bid at $441 a tonne fob ARA but no offers.

* Earlier in the day, 6,000 tonnes of benchmark gasoline traded at between $442 and $445 a tonne fob ARA, slightly lower than the $445-$450 range on Wednesday. Gunvor and Rolympus sold to BP and Varo.

* Shell sold to Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) barges of premium unleaded gasoline at $458 a tonne fob ARA compared to $454 a tonne the previous day.

* The December swap stood at around $447 a tonne at the close, down from $454 a tonne.

* Gasoline barge refining margins edged higher to $8.046 a barrel from $6.865 a barrel.

* U.S. December RBOB gasoline futures were trading 2.3 percent higher at $1.3500 a gallon at 1730 GMT.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RBC1-CLC1) traded at $10.75 a barrel, up from $9.92 a barrel.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* Total sold a cif NWE cargo to Gunvor at $413 a tonne.

(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki)