A backlog of over 30 oil tankers has built up outside the Iraqi port of Basra and shippers face lengthy delays of up to three weeks to load oil because of bad weather and possible oil quality issues, shipping industry sources said. The problems could delay or limit the number of oil export cargoes from Basra in April, potentially pushing down tanker freight rates, two Singapore ship brokers familiar with the issue said. More than 30 oil tankers, two-thirds of them supertankers (VLCC), with a combined capacity of around 50 million barrels are currently lying outside Basra, some of them since mid-March, Reuters shipping data shows. “The bad weather (in February) has caused all these delays,” said Sadiq Jaafar, head of marine consultancy firm Sadiq Jaafar & Associates in Baghdad. The strong winds and storms created a backlog into March and April, said two other maritime […]