Sovcomflot (SCF Group) CFO Nikolay Kolesnikov believes long-term sustainability of tanker rates is more important to the company than any short-lived spikes.

October saw a perfect storm of Middle East tanker attacks, US sanctions and scrubber retrofittings briefly drive up spot numbers above $300,000 for VLCCs on subjects.

"We had an eventful period at the end of the third quarter - disruptions that had a major impact on the crude tanker side and which were favourable to shipowners," the finance chief told TradeWinds.