Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline cracks steady, slow exports to U.S. weigh

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe were little changed on Tuesday, but a closed arbitrage to the United States threatened to pull them lower.

* The arbitrage to the U.S. East Coast was largely closed for most traders, with high freight rates making it more difficult to move the motor fuel on transatlantic routes.

* But shipping fixtures showed rising demand to ship reformate from northwest Europe to Asia, with several tankers booked in recent days.

* India's gasoline consumption rose by more than 12 percent to 574,000 barrels per day in 2016 compared with 2015, according to preliminary fuel sales figures compiled by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

* An enormous increase in the number of first-time drivers on the country's roads drove the increase.

* Northwest European naphtha cracks were at their highest since late November, at around 72 cents a barrel, according to Reuters calculations, buoyed by firming Asian margins for the feedstock from petrochemical plants.

* A 200,000 bpd crude distillation unit at BP's 377,000 bpd Rotterdam refinery has been shutdown, industry monitor Genscape reported on Tuesday. BP declined a Reuters request for comment.

* Marathon Petroleum Corp's Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Texas, began a planned overhaul on Monday of a crude distillation unit, reformers and a hydrotreater, sources familiar with plant operations said.

GASOLINE

* No trades emerged during the late afternoon window. A bid surfaced at $518 a tonne fob ARA, compared with trading at $525 a tonne on Monday.

* Earlier in the day, 4,000 tonnes of gasoline traded at $522 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, down from $527.50-$538 a tonne on Tuesday. Gunvor sold to Varo and Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) .

* No barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded.

* The February swap stood at around $527 a tonne at the close.

* Gasoline barge refining margins were steady at around $8.79 a barrel.

* U.S. front month RBOB gasoline futures were trading 0.64 percent lower at $1.5607 a gallon by 1636 GMT.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RBc1-CLc1) traded at $14.01 a barrel, slightly lower than $14.10 a barrel on Monday.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* BASF sold a cargo to Glencore at $486 a tonne cif NWE.

(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, editing by Libby George)