Sovcomflot is back in the black for the first quarter thanks to an upswing in the company's tanker business.

The Russian state shipowner posted $70.1m in profit for the three months of 2019, a marked improvement over the $16.1m loss reported for the same period last year.

Sovcomflot, also known as SCF Group, attributed the jump to a 53% year-on-year increase in profit for its crude tanker fleet.