It was hard to find positive words to describe the crude tanker market over the past week, at least for the largest ships.

Howe Robinson described VLCCs as languishing throughout in its daily reports, while Gibson Shipbrokers called the situation in the Middle East Gulf "flat and depressing" on Friday as tankers continue to deal with Covid-19 demand issues.

"A very slow drip-feed of enquiry against a good supply of available tonnage has ensured owners have had to shave a little more off their rates to...