John Fredriksen-backed Frontline is still in the game if the right fleet expansion deal emerges.
Chief executive Robert Hvide Macleod told analysts that, despite high asset prices and uncertain markets, the company "has certainly not turned off the light" in terms of new deals.
"We are always monitoring things," he said.
"We are more on the sideline than we were a couple of months ago, but if there is a deal out there, we are still there."
The New York and Oslo-listed tanker owner's financial power was boosted by a fourth quarter net profit of nearly $109m.
The last big deal it carried out was the acquisition of 10 suezmax tankers from Trafigura.
Frontline got its hands on the new scrubber-fitted vessels built in 2019 in a cash and share transaction.
No more scrubber plans
Turning to the question of exhaust gas cleaners, Macleod said the company now has 26 tankers fitted with scrubbers — 50% of the fleet.
Six more vessels are due for retrofits in the second quarter, but this might run into the third period due to delays at yards caused by the coronavirus.
Macleod said the company is not making decisions on more retrofits for vessels outside their scheduled dry dockings, but is monitoring the situation.
Its scrubber programme has been weighted more heavily towards suezmaxes and VLCCs.
"The bigger the ship the more sense they make," Macleod added.
"We have superior access to scrubbers in terms of timing and pricing due to our part-ownership of [manufacturer] Clean Marine."
The chief executive was also asked about VLCC spot rates and said "the market was completely shot to pieces earlier in 2020".
But it bottomed out two weeks ago, he added, with numbers reaching the high $30,000s per day for scrubber-fitted ships.
"We have seen a lot of under the radar activity and the ship list in the Middle East is not looking too bad," he said.
'Finding its feet'
"Maybe the figure now would start with a 4 for modern ships. The market is finding its feet."
Macleod added: "If we fixed all our ships today we would still make a profit due to our suexmaxes and LR2s.
"The world is getting shock after shock but surely there will be some good news soon."
