Teekay Tankers Ltd, the Bermudian-based owner and operator of mid-sized crude oil tankers, has returned to profitability.

The company reported net income of $28.5 million in the second quarter of the year.

That compares with a first-quarter loss of $13.9 million and a loss of $129 million in the second quarter of 2021.

Kevin Mackay, Teekay Tankers’ president and CEO, said: “The wide-ranging impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are reshaping global energy markets. With Europe reducing imports of Russian crude oil and replacing them with longer-haul cargoes from across the Atlantic basin or through the Suez Canal, and with Russian cargoes increasingly flowing to China and India, the improvement in tanker tonne-mile demand has been significant.

“These changes appear likely to be sustained, as sanctions are coming into force which will formalise import restrictions that have thus far been largely voluntary.

“Given both the draft restrictions and parcel sizes in many of the most impacted ports, this newly created tonne-mile demand has disproportionately benefited mid-sized tankers, driving rates to their highest level in two years.”

He added: “Meanwhile, tanker supply fundamentals are as supportive as they have been at any point during the last 25 years, with net supply growth in the mid-sized segments expected to be negligible or negative from now until 2025 and little capacity for additional orders that could deliver during this period.

“Following the tanker downturn that has persisted throughout much of the Covid-19 era, we are pleased to have returned to profitability in the second quarter as our high operating leverage and spot market exposure enabled us to quickly capture charter rates that have now risen to several times their prior-year levels.”