NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Colonial Pipeline restarted

its main gasoline artery, which delivers fuel from the U.S. Gulf

Coast to East Coast markets, on Friday after it was shut earlier

this week due to a leak in Paulding County, Georgia.

"Colonial Pipeline safely completed repairs Friday morning

on our gasoline pipeline, Line 1, in Paulding County, Ga., and

returned the line to service," the company said in a statement.

Line 1, one of two mainlines on the more than 5,500 mile

Colonial Pipeline system, was shut on Monday night after the

company received reports of a leak.

The pipeline delivers some 1.5 million barrels of gasoline

each day from Houston, Texas, to storage tanks in Greensboro,

North Carolina, from where the motor fuel is distributed locally

or shipped to other markets all the way up to the New York

Harbor.

Market disruptions from the outage were minimal, although

supply had tightened in some areas, U.S. fuel distributor

Mansfield told clients earlier on Friday.

U.S. gasoline futures prices eased about 0.1% to

$2.12 per gallon by 12:56 a.m. EST.

"It will take the better part of next week to get terminals

fully caught up after missing the better part of 4 days' worth

of batches," fuel distributor TACenergy said.

However, demand is also likely to slow as fuel terminals

that had filled up "just in case" will now have extra inventory

to clear, TACenergy added.

Colonial said that site work, including remediation efforts,

will continue in Paulding County in coordination with state and

local agencies.

The company did not provide details on how the line was

damaged, or the amount of fuel that was released.