Theboss of the tanker and terminals group made his comments as the companyreported third quarter net profits of $18.5m.

StoltTankers saw operating profits shrink almost 63% from a year ago to just $2.6m,while Stolt Terminals reported a 27% increase to $22.9m.

“StoltTankers reported a modest operating profit for the quarter, due to acombination of improved trading performance and lower operating costs,” hesaid.

“Whilean