Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Cracks slide as U.S. pipeline fears recede

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe slipped on Wednesday as markets eased on news of the expected restart of the Colonial pipeline at the end of the week following a fatal blast on Monday.

* Several cargoes have been booked in recent days out of Europe on the transatlantic route as the Colonial blast cut the U.S. East Coast from a major supply source.

* A small fire continued to burn at the site of the Colonial explosion in dense forest 12 miles (19 km) south of Helena, Alabama, a Colonial said on Wednesday.

* Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) has cut gasoline production at its 225,500 bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery due to the outage, sources familiar with operations said on Wednesday.

* Meanwhile cash gasoline markets in New York began to rebalance on expectations Colonial will restart by Saturday. F5 gasoline for prompt delivery in New York traded at 3.50 cpg above Nymex RBOB RBc1, down 7 cents from Tuesday.

* Imperial Oil (Toronto: IMO.TO - news) reported a fire and hydrogen sulfide release at its 121,000 bpd Sarnia, Ontario facility, according to a message on an alerting system late Tuesday.

* U.S. crude oil stocks increased by 14 million barrels, the largest build recorded, sending oil prices down. Modest drawdowns in gasoline and distillates stocks failed to support U.S. RBOB and ULSD futures which fell in tandem with crude.

* North Carolina, Georgia waive regulations for drivers to facilitate gasoline trucking after Colonial pipeline outage.

* Planned work at Irving Oil's 300,000 bpd Saint John, New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) Brunswick refinery, which shut significant portions of the plant starting in mid-September, will be extended due to a fire, but the extension is not expected to be lengthy.

GASOLINE

* There were no trades of benchmark Eurobob gasoline barges in the afternoon trading window. Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) bid $461 a tonne fob ARA, with no offers, compared to trades of $475 and $477 a tonne on Tuesday.

* Elsewhere during the day, three 2,000 tonne and one 1,000 tonne barges were sold at between $480 and $485 a tonne fob ARA compared to barges sold at $483 to $510 a tonne. Gunvor, Vitol and Shell sold to BP, Varo and Mabanaft

* Rolympus sold to Total a barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $489 a tonne fob ARA, down from $514 a tonne on Tuesday.

* The December swap stood at around $457 a tonne.

* Gasoline barge refining margins stood at $10.688 a barrel compared to $11.063 a barrel on Tuesday.

* Brent crude oil futures for December delivery were $1.47 lower at $46.67 by 1700 GMT.

* U.S. November RBOB gasoline futures were trading 2.67 percent lower at $1.4445 a gallon.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RBC1-CLC1) traded at $15.46 a barrel, compared to a closing level of $15.60 on Tuesday.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* No cargoes traded.

(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki)