Frontline reports bumper Q4 profit as tanker industry enters ‘unprecedented’ period

Tanker giant Frontline announced an adjusted profit of $230.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2005 on revenues of $624.5 million.

Achieved average daily spot TCEs for VLCCs, Suezmax tankers and LR2/Aframax tankers in the quarter were $74,200, $53,800, and $33,500 per day, respectively.

Lars H. Barstad, Chief Executive Officer of Frontline Management AS, commented: “The fourth quarter of 2025 reinforced the positive momentum established in the third quarter. For several years, Frontline has maintained that the growing imbalance between oil demand growth and limited fleet supply would create a constructive market environment, and the firm trend has carried into the first quarter of 2026.

“Periods of volatility tend to create opportunities, and Frontline has moved decisively, both in renewing its VLCC fleet and in securing attractive fixed revenue, as we enter what may prove to be an unprecedented period for the tanker industry.

“Our team brings decades of experience navigating comparable cycles, and Frontline’s business model is set to capitalize on such environments, positioning the Company to generate material shareholder returns as we proceed.”

In its results statement, the company further added: “Following a period of intensified sanction enforcement by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the impact is now increasingly evident across tanker markets, supporting higher utilization and market share for the compliant fleet.”

During Q4 2025 Frontline entered into agreements to sell eight of its oldest first-generation ECO VLCCs, built between 2015 and 2016, to an unrelated third party, for a total sales price of $831.5 million and to acquire nine latest generation scrubber-fitted ECO VLCC newbuildings from affiliates of Hemen Holding Limited, the Company’s largest shareholder, for an aggregate purchase price of $1,224.0 million.

Upon completion of the VLCC fleet renewal, Frontline’s fleet will comprise of 81 vessels, including 42 VLCCs, 21 Suezmax tankers and 18 LR2/Aframax tankers, with an aggregate capacity of approximately 17.9 million DWT, making it one of the most modern and energy efficient tanker fleets in the industry.