Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline cracks slide as U.S. pipeline restarts

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Benchmark gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe slipped on Thursday as the key Colonial pipeline in the United States restarted, potentially lessening the need for European imports to the U.S. East Coast.

* Colonial Pipeline Co said its main gasoline line was safely restarted on Wednesday and returned to service after its biggest leak in nearly two decades squeezed supply and led to increased prices at the pump in the Southeast United States.

* The line carries 1.3 million barrels per day of gasoline from the refining hub on the Gulf Coast to the East Coast, and its outage sapped gasoline stocks in the PADD 1 region and led to more demand for exports from Europe.

* Gasoline cracks in both Europe and the United States fell back to the early September before the pipeline went down.

* Oil products held in independent storage in Europe's ARA hub stood more than 20 percent below a year ago, according to data from Dutch consultancy PJK International.

* Stocks were down just under 5 percent on the week, with gasoline and naphtha drawn by demand in the United States and China and from petrochemical units within Europe.

GASOLINE

* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) sold to Gunvor one barge of benchmark eurobob winter grade gasoline at $475 a tonne fob ARA. This compared with bids on Wednesday at $463 a tonne.

* Some 5,000 tonnes traded earlier in the day at $483 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, up by $1. Gunvor and Shell sold to Rolympus.

* There were no trades, bids or offers of summer grade premium unleaded gasoline barges.

* The October swap stood at $469.50 a tonne at the close, up from $461 a tonne.

* Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $9.97 from $10.99 a barrel on Wednesday.

* Brent crude oil futures were up 80 cents at $47.63 a barrel by 1540 GMT.

* U.S. October RBOB gasoline futures were up 0.22 percent at 1.4021 a gallon.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was trading at $9.97 a barrel, down from $11.98 a barrel.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) sold to Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) one 24,000 tonne cargo of naphtha for October 4-8 delivery at $417 a tonne cif.

(Reporting By Libby George)