Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline gains, naphtha falls

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - Gasoline prices in northwest Europe rose more swiftly than crude on Tuesday while naphtha prices instead dipped, with sentiment in both markets weak ahead of the Easter break.

"The market is often dead at this time of the year as we switch from winter to summer," said one trader, commenting on the lack of activity.

"Everything is more expectation than reality," he added, referring to the way gasoline in the region responded to the outlook in the United States.

U.S. demand dropped off suddenly in the first half of the month, weighing on the market in Europe, but travel for the Easter holiday weekend ahead has helped revive the market in the U.S. in a sign demand for imports could recover.

Naphtha markets, in contrast, were weaker with prices falling despite a small rise in crude oil.

"It's taken a beating today... cracks have dropped by a dollar," said one naphtha trader, adding that the supply and demand balance appeared tight in the Mediterranean and did not appear to justify the session's losses.

"I don't fully understand it. The Mediterranean is pretty dry."

A second naphtha trader agreed that supplies in April appeared tight due to reduced output from Skikda, Algeria's main refinery.

Libya's key refinery on the other hand, Ras Lanuf, appeared to be running as normal again after facing delivery problems at the start of the month, the first trader said.

GASOLINE

* Five barges of benchmark Eurobob traded at $1,044-$1,045 a tonne fob ARA, up from $1,036 a tonne fob ARA on Monday. Gunvor and Chevron sold to Shell and Cargill.

* Ahead of the window, three barges of winter grade gasoline changed hands at $993-$994 a tonne fob ARA and seven barges of summer grade gasoline traded at $1,044-$1,049 a tonne fob ARA.

* Summer grade gasoline traded in a narrower range than $1,037-$1,050 a tonne fob ARA on Monday.

* Total sold all the winter grade barges, while Gunvor sold all but one of the summer grade barges. BP and Shell were the main buyers.

* One barge of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $1,025.25 a tonne, up from $1,019 a tonne fob ARA on Monday.

* In the Mediterranean, Socar sold a cargo to Gunvor at $1,008 a tonne fob Med.

* Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was slightly up at $17.50 a barrel at 1721 GMT, up from around $16.62 a barrel the previous evening.

* Around the same time, Brent crude oil futures

were

up 38 cents cents at $108.55 a barrel.

* The U.S. benchmark RBOB gasoline futures were up 0.63 percent at $3.0820 a gallon.

NAPHTHA

* Two naphtha cargoes traded in the window. Vitol sold both to Trafigura at $884-$886 a tonne cif NWE for April 13-17. This was below Monday's deals done at $889-$891 a tonne cif NWE.

* The prompt naphtha crack weakened to around minus $9.01 a barrel late on Tuesday, down from minus $7.62 a barrel the previous evening, according to Reuters calculations.

(Reporting by Jessica Donati; Editing by William Hardy)

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Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE/GASOLINE