The company said net earnings to 31 December were $5.77m, against a loss of $4.88m in the same period of 2012.

Revenue grew to $53.26m from $30.1m, while the Dorian deal gave it a gain of $41.37m.

CEO Emanuele Lauro said: "Although our fourth quarter 2013 results reflect the deleterious effects of prolonged turnarounds of existing refineries and delays of commissioning the new refining assets, we remain confident in the underlying demand and supply thesis.”

He pointed to higher returns from its ships so far in the first quarter of 2014.

He added: “We expect to be profitable this quarter.

"As for the remainder of 2014, both new emissions regulations and customer preferences will leave us very well-positioned.”

Ben Nolan of Stifel says theadjusted loss of $0.08 per share for the quarter was deeper than the $0.02expected on Wall Street.

“Scorpiomanagement did announce an increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.08, from aprevious $0.07, marking another quarter that the company has increased itsdistributions,” he added.

The company has 63 newbuildings on order, with $2.18bn in payments still to come.