New York-listed NAT carded a profit of $1.28m in the quarter, beating the loss of $16.54m at the same point in 2013.
Its profit of $0.01 per share confounded expectations on Wall Street for a loss of $0.11 per share.
NAT says cash flow rose from $4.3m in the previous quarter to $21.7m in the three months to the end of September as suezmax rates reached a seasonal four-year high.
