Industry players have of late been telling Portworld how, ironically enough, port delays, the bane of any ship operator, are actually keeping global tanker markets from collapsing.

“Current tanker market conditions are already disastrous, and I am not exaggerating,” a senior Maersk executive told Portworld in Singapore recently. "Without port delays, the tanker markets would have collapsed by now."

“To slow steam an entire fleet is not as simple as it seems. There are many factors to consider and it is definitely not possible to slow steam all the time for every voyage,” he said.

“Port delays however, can be counted on to always appear both when you expect it and when you don't expect it. These port delays are what's keeping tankers in the water for a longer time than expected.

“And that is absolutely joyful news for a market whose main problem right now is too many available ships for not enough cargoes to go around,” he added.

In line with his comments was the latest note from maritime consultants McQuilling Services which stated that port delays continue to absorb tanker tonnage.

The analysts at McQuilling compiled a comprehensive list of port delay situations globally, most of which have been over the past years affecting and look to continue affecting the tanker industry.

Ports in the Mediterranean and throughout Europe continued to show an increase in port delays, said McQuilling over the weekend. Traffic through the Bosporus Straits also causes port delays.

Heightened delays in the region were primarily due to weather constraints, the EU's severe lack of storage facilities, port dredging, and the prevalence of French union strikes, McQuilling explained.

McQuilling expects “these same factors along with numerous other events on the cusp for this year to cause continued port delays in 2010”.

According to the New York-based consultants, some of these factors include:

Nearly 140 tankers employed in floating storage, many of which may potentially join in the traffic awaiting port operations.

Additional port dredging required throughout the entirety of Europe.

China’s crude oil stockpiling program goes into stage- two as additional tanks come on-line. Yet enhancements to port infrastructure to meet steadily increasing imports seems lacking at present.

The ability of West African nations to stabilize their national, governmental, and port infrastructure to facilitate the free flow of goods. The “indefinite” ceasefire issued by MEND last summer has been revoked, and attacks against oil majors in the Niger delta have already begun again.

Effects of hurricanes in the US Gulf and Caribbean, which while largely unfelt by tanker trades in the course of 2009, have the potential to significantly alter the free flow of vessels in the west.

Weather related delays in the Black Sea, where bottle-necking at the Turkish Straits have already led to delays of up to 10 days for restricted vessels this winter.

In summary, McQuilling said “there is little that can be done to combat port delays by the participants of the tanker markets alone.”

“Until accommodations for expanding trade are realized, port delays will continue to be the poisoned arrow in the heel of tanker turnaround time,” McQuilling added.

But precisely because they have the potential to significantly lengthen turnaround time, port delays will continue being good news for the tanker industry over the next few years as tonnage oversupply overshadows what has been forecast to be slow and protracted recovery in global oil demand and the need for oil transportation.