LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins innorthwest Europe rose on Friday supported by tightening ofstocks in the Atlantic basin and outages in key U.S. Gulf Coastrefineries
* Outages at two refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast - MotivaEnterprise's Convent refinery and Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery,have tightened gasoline production and led to diversion of somecargoes from the New York harbour to the south, traders said.
* Around 1.4 million tonnes have been booked on thetransatlantic route to load in August, according to Reutersshipping data.
* The naphtha market regained some strength in recent daysafter at least two cargoes were booked out of the port of UstLuga in the Baltics and the Mediterranean to the U.S. EastCoast, traders said.
* Naphtha demand is rising due to blending of winter-gradegasoline in Europe and North America, they said.
* ARA gasoline stocks independently held in theAmsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp dropped by 9 percent in the week toThursday, Dutch consultancy PJK International said. This was thefourth consecutive week of stocks declines in the region, aresult of continued exports and lower gasoline output fromrefineries in the region.
* China has resumed buying of reformate in recent days, withat least one 40,000 tonne cargo booked by AFCO for loading inARA in early September.
* Graphic: Global refined oil stocks (http://tmsnrt.rs/2br1O3U)
GASOLINE
* There were no Eurobob trades during the afternoon tradingwindow. There were no bids or offers.
* Some 8,000 tonnes traded in the morning at $488 a tonnefob ARA, up from $478.50 a tonne on Thursday. Gunvor and Totalsold to Statoil and Shell.
* Litasco sold a barge of premium unleaded gasoline to Totalat $501 a tonne fob ARA, similar to the previous session.
* Gasoline barge refining margins rose to $8.67 a barrelfrom $8.02 a barrel.
* The September swap stood at around $492 a tonne at theclose, up from $487 a tonne.
* Brent crude oil futures were down 23 cents at$50.60 a barrel by 1737 GMT.
* U.S. August RBOB gasoline futures were up 0.6 percent at 1.4984 a gallon.
* The U.S. gasoline crack
NAPHTHA
* BP sold a cargo to Rolympus at $396 a tonne cif NWE.
* The naphtha crack was at around minus $5.3 a barrel. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Editing by)