LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - Gasoline barge prices in northwest Europe followed crude higher on Thursday after bullish U.S. inventory data a day earlier but trading activity was limited ahead of the Easter holiday long weekend. "There are a few conversations but it's fairly quiet," said one gasoline broker. "Most guys are done for April -- with the holidays and so on there are only three pricing days left." Gasoline rallied, taking its cue from the U.S. oil stocks data released by the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday which showed a 1.58 million barrel draw in gasoline. [EIA/S] Gasoline stocks are down for a ninth consecutive week but analysts at Commerzbank expect oil product inventories to increase in the weeks ahead. "Refineries have largely completed their maintenance work and are stepping up production again in response to healthy refinery margins," they said in a note. On the demand side, Commerzbank believes that the sharp rise in gasoline and diesel prices should have an impact, resulting in below-average driving activity. "This already seems to be happening with gasoline, as while recent weeks have seen a seasonal upturn in demand, it was still down 1.8 percent year-on-year over the past four weeks," they said. GASOLINE * Some 6,000 tonnes of benchmark Eurobob traded in the window, which closed at 1130 GMT today ahead of the Easter break. The barges changed hands at $1,120-$1,128 a tonne fob ARA, up from $1,104 a tonne fob ARA on Wednesday. * Trafigura, Vitol and Cargill were sellers while Total and Totsa were among the buyers. * Some 9,000 tonnes traded ahead of the window, at between $1,117-$1,121 a tonne fob ARA, and at premiums to the May gasoline swap of $11-$13. * Just one barge of premium unleaded gasoline traded in the window, at $1,131 a tonne fob ARA, up from Wednesday's $1,119-$1,125 a tonne fob ARA. * Vitol sold the barge to Glencore for delivery between April 28 and May 2, a broker said. * Eurobob's crack to dated Brent BFO- was up at around $8.85 a barrel at 1156 GMT, from around $7.31 a barrel at the close of play on Wednesday, according to Reuters calculations. * ICE Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 44 cents at $124.29 a barrel around the same time, supported by a weaker dollar and yesterday's U.S. oil inventories fall. [O/R] * U.S. RBOB gasoline futures RBc1 in New York were up 0.55 percent at $3.2954 a barrel. The crack RB-CL1=R was pretty much unchanged from Wednesday evening, at $25.09 a barrel. NAPHTHA * There was no trading in the European physical naphtha window, no bids and no offers, a naphtha broker said. * The outright naphtha cargo swap for the balance of April was at $1,072.65 a tonne cif NWE by mid-day, whilst the May swap was at $1,062.65 a tonne cif NWE. * The crack was at minus $3.87 a barrel, a broker said. (Reporting by Claire Milhench; editing by Jason Neely)

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