Crude tanker owners saw some improvement in rates in a market that could see more cargoes in short order.

The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index finished the week at 630, a three-month high after rallying from 616 on Monday and continuing an upward trend that started on 1 September.

VLCC time charter equivalent rates climbed until Thursday, rising from -$6,832 per day to -$6,210 per day before falling to -$6,524 per day on Friday, but remain at highs not seen since early June.

"[The week] started off looking like it would provide VLCC owners with the required ammunition to really get a stranglehold on the market and push levels on to something near reasonable for this time of year, but unfortunately, charterers had other ideas," Gibson Shipbrokers said in its weekly report.

"As the week progressed, enquiry diminished and as such rates levelled off."

The broker said the last fixture done for a voyage from the Middle East Gulf east was around Worldscale 40, while a westward voyage was estimated at WS 20.

In its weekly report, the Baltic Exchange quoted similar rates for VLCCs out of the Middle East Gulf and described the climb in rates happening at a "glacial pace".

Additionally, owners are dealing with increasing bunker prices cutting into rate hikes.

More oil on the way?

Gibson said Russian oil exports were rising, with crude loading at Baltic Sea ports expected to jump by 20% from September to October, while North Sea production jumps 10% as supply increases put into place earlier in the year by Opec continue to kick in.

Meanwhile, a report from Reuters on Friday suggested the oil production alliance could boost production even further at its meeting next week.

The report comes as Brent crude prices jumped to $79.10 on Friday, having eclipsed $80 on Tuesday with the newswire blaming unplanned US production outages amid a strengthening global economy.

Opec next meets on 4 October.

After a brief delay, the group came to an agreement in July to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day.

Many in the market were expecting those production increases to fuel an improvement in the tanker market, ailing due to travel demand destruction from Covid-19.