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Such risks are more fully disclosed in TEN's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ladies and gentlemen, at this point, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Takis Arapoglou, the chairman of the board of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Mr.

Arapoglou, please go ahead, sir.

Takis Arapoglou -- Chairman of the Board

Thank you, Nicolas. Good morning, and good afternoon to all, and thank you for joining our call today. In the longest-ever weak market in recent history, which includes the first quarter of 2018, probably the worst quarter ever, TEN posted quality performance for the first nine months of 2018. Positive operating income, healthy EBITDA and a strong cash position, we continue to pay dividends and cover all our financial obligations.

We keep steadily reducing our debt. We maintain operational excellence and world-class cost control, and excluding extraordinary items that Niko Tsakos and Paul Durham will explain, it produced an EPS for the nine-month period very close to market expectations. Most probably, the weak market is now well behind us, and TEN is extremely well-positioned to benefit from the positive market outlook. That's it for me.

We'll turn again to Niko Tsakos and his team. And over to you, Niko.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, chairman, and we hope to get some praise when we produce profits. I mean we have outperformed the market and our peer group in our result, but our aim as major shareholders in this company is also to increase profits. But thank you anyway. And for those of you, die-hard conference call followers, I've been saying in the last calls that the market was showing signs of improvement.

It finally has happened. Well, again, even a broken clock is right twice a day, so be -- I have to be honest and say that I have been surprised by how strong the recovery has been so far. This period reminds me of 2002, again, the fourth quarter, which coincides with the birth of my son, so it's a good memory. And at that time was the beginning of recovery following the Asian crisis -- again [Inaudible] crisis, Asian crisis topped by 9/11 effects.

And that was the beginning of recovery that lasted then six blessed years. Now 16 years later, all that -- and wiser, we hope for at least a couple of good years over similar markets. And I think we are getting close to it as we said in the last call. It has come to fruition.

The supply and demand for [Inaudible] are lining up. Other than the VLCCs, which also are being absorbed, the remaining of the fleet is in the lowest newbuilding for a very long period of time. And with scaping happening, we are seeing naturally fleet reduction for the first time in almost a decade. And on top of that, we have a 2020 saga.

And of course, the results that will create that will -- that means that we are in for an exciting ride from moving from to the low to a higher market. Our company, TEN, is well placed with 40 out of 64 vessels already taking up advantage of firmer rates at the start of the -- during -- in September. And with this, I will ask George Saroglou, the COO, to guide you for what the future holds and give you a little bit of the history of the past. George?

George Saroglou -- Chief Operating Officer

Thank you, Nikolas. The good news is that I will not talk about the past but the future, which is much brighter. We navigated nine months very difficult freight market conditions. However, thanks to our commercial strategy, we managed to outperform both the market and our peer group.

And now finally, happy market days are here to stay. For those that are following the presentation, please look at the available cash flows we have. Let's start with Slide No. 1.

Here, what you see the market strength in the fourth quarter, represented in the first slide. In the first slide, when we compare the nine months 2018 spot rates with the current spot for different categories in which we operate. As you can see, VLCCs are currently averaging in excess of $56,000, that was $12,000 for the first nine months. Suezmax is in excess of $44,000 versus $8,000.

Aframax is in excess of $28,000 versus $9,000. Panamax is $28,000 versus $7,400. MRs and Handys, almost $16,000 versus $10,000 at the end of September. Main driver behind the market strength is strong double-digit demand, higher OPEX in Russian production, strong toll tax for the United States through out performed miles, and limited vessel supply and the global tanker fleets had very little growth during this year thanks to the higher scraping levels we have experienced since [Inaudible].

Although, OPEX and freights currently discussed moderate production of cash flow caused another buildup of global oil inventories. The main market drivers that led to the recovery of freight rates will continue to influence the tanker markets next year. On the next slide, the left side of the slide, we see the breakeven cost of all the various vessel types that we currently operate in TEN. As you can see, the cost base is low.

In addition to the low shipment imports, we must highlight the purchasing power of Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the company and the continues spot control efforts by management to maintain the low OPEX average for the fleet, while keeping a very high fleet utilization quarter after quarter, again over 96% percent, that we believe qualifies full employment. Hence, diversified fleet with the optionality it offers, combined with a flexible charter inflated wins, ensures that even in weak markets, like the one we have experienced in the first nine months of the year, the company continues to maintain impeccable debt service record and meet all its obligations. In addition, thanks to the profit-sharing element that is incorporated in most of the companies chartering arrangement, it tends to benefit when market conditions improve. Based on the current market strength, and the number of vessels operating in the spot market and in terms are the profit-sharing, for every $1,000 dollars increase in spot market rates, we have a positive impact of $0.07 in the annual earnings per share.

We see the full picture in Slide 3 of how the fleet is currently chartered. We have 30 vessels on fixed rate times charters, while 36 vessels, or 55% of the fleet, in the fourth quarter 2018 has -- have spot rate exposure in the combination of COAs, time charter profit sharing and in mass volumes. Considering also the vessels that are operating for a charter in 2019, we are going to have 68% of the fleet that will earn higher freights in certain market environments next year. What we see in demand is in Slide No.

4, global oil demand continues to be robust, growing above the 10-year average. This year, the International Energy Agency expects growth of 1.3 million barrels per day. And the forecast for next year is for growth of 1.4 million barrels per day. In the fourth quarter of 2018, for the first time global demand for oil is expected to be above 100 million barrels per day record, which is a big record.

The next 2 slides, a little bit about the supply on the fleet, while we have seen this fleet growth year-to-date is low, less than 1%. And scraping is high and with the new environmental regulation keeping the tanker industry for next years, hence the significant profit the tanker fleet approaching 20 years before 2020, the expectation, is the fleet growth in the two, three years to remain below the long-term average level of approximately 3%. In the last slide, all tanker vessel categories currently enjoy a strong fourth quarter. The company's diversified fleets have significant spot exposure in every asset class it corporates, as Slide 7 shows.

45 vessels out of the 66 vessel pro forma fleet, or 68%, including the vessels that we've opened in 2019 are expected to benefit from the stronger market. We believe the drivers have finally led to the recovery of rising freight rates will continue to influence positively the market next year, helping the company to return to profitability. That concludes the operational part of our presentation. Paul will walk you through the financial highlights for the third quarter and nine months.

Paul Durham -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, George. Well as chief bean counter, I thank heaven, the nine months are behind us and the next nine months look very promising. Importantly, we saw the prolonged soft market continuing, until it began to turn in late September, helping revenue climb 2% above quarter 3 2017 and rising more vigorously as we enter quarter 4. Operating days on spot in quarter 3 increased, but a surge in fuel prices hit spot rates, especially the product carriers, two of which also lost days on repositioning, bringing net revenue $4 million down from the prior quarter 3.

However, as the market strengthens within quarter 4, we're now seeing more consistent signs of recovery, with crude carriers now attaining rates not enjoyed for over a year. In addition, recently in quarter 4, LNG Carrier, Neo Energy, saw an extension of its time charter at a considerably higher rate, well above breakeven. With nearly 40 vessels either on spot or on time charter with profit share and wirh several more tankers to come up time charter in forthcoming months, TEN is in an excellent position to take advantage of a stronger market, leading remaining vessels to provide a secure cash flows. Last December, we sold Suezmax's Euronike and Eurochampion in a sale on lease-back deal.

And since then, we paid $2.7 million quarterly to charter in the vessels. However, having repaid the debt on those vessels with the proceeds, the chartering payments are mostly offset by the end of associated quarterly loan and interest installments. OPEX for vessels remained -- has remained relatively stable for the quarter at about $7,600, and $7,700 for the nine-month period. Average vessel overhead costs will also remain stable at $1,000 a day.

Finance costs increased by $2.4 million, mainly due to higher LIBOR, although, average margins remain the same. Bunker hedges generated $2.6 million cash gains, but valuations fell by $1 million. Due to all these factors, including the costly repositioning of the two product areas, TEN had a net loss of $14.6 million, a loss per share of $0.28. $0.04 of which were due to the added preferred stock dividends in quarter 3.

We believe 2018 losses are now behind us, and we shall see most positive results in 2019. We continue to maintain a strong liquidity to meet our debt service and other obligations. Outstanding debt is fast declining, with $190 million repaid year-on-year. Looking at it another way, that's $2 per shares extra value.

In quarter 3, there was no new debt, only $49 million in repayments, bringing total outstanding debt down $1.63 billion. Quarter 4 will see a further net reduction of $33 million. At quarter-end, net debt-to-capital was below 47%. The two Aframax-es being built for charter cost $103 million, of which $10 million was paid in quarter 2.

Arrangement for further financing the remainder are in place at very competitive terms. And this concludes my comments, and now I'll hand the call back to Niko.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Paul. And we think with the [Inaudible], we'll be more profitable. But I think it is very important to, again, explain that TEN's policy of running a very tight ship both operationally and commercially has allowed the company for the last 25 years to continuously pay its dividend and its -- and service all its obligations and be left with a very healthy world just in case -- dividend, and having every year, we increase by more than $2 or $3 the value of the company by repaying our debt. And with that, I would like to open the floor for any questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] We will now take our first question. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Yes. Hello. This is Fotis Giannakoulis from Morgan Stanley. Niko, the -- both you and the chairman mentioned the improvement of the market.

I want to ask you, what do you think is different this time, given the overhang of the potential cap from OPEC and Russia? What makes you sound opportunistic that any potential cap next year will not derail the recovery of the tanker market?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you very much. Well, I think that the market right now has learned to live with cap. Today, the oil prices and the wide difference between the [Inaudible] and brands is giving a lot of developing countries, even not developing countries like India and China to stop their spot buying. I do not expect a dramatic OPEC cut.

We believe that having really the three major producers of oil outside the OPEC or independent of OPEC, that be the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia, I mean, they -- are almost produce 35% of oil production in oil makes OPEC's rich less. I think what could happen if we see a large daily cut of about one million barrel so that the market will normalize. I would rather have a longer-term normalized market, and when I say normalized, if you look at the rates that show -- talks about, I think I will be very happy to have a normalized market over [Inaudible] in the four [Inaudible] markets in the mid 20s together with aftermarket and so on and so forth. So I think this is what we are looking at right now.

We're looking at a soft market that could be normalize if we have some -- one million cap the next year, which I'm not sure it will happen.

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you, Nik. I want to ask you about any changes in the trade flows, given that the U.S. exports are ramping up and the U.S. becoming increasingly a net exporter of crude and oil products.

Have you repositioned your vessels differently compared to, let's say, a year ago? Do you see the -- more delays -- more vessels instead of concentrating in their usual areas moving to different directions. How does this impact the -- your trading activity and the positioning of your fleet?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think that's a very valid point. We think a lot of our crude carriers, which will -- that we'll expect to have in the Middle East or West Africa five years ago right now being in the United -- a lot of them in the U.S. Gulf.

As we speak today, we have ships that are learning in excess of 12 markets of $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000, depending which -- then they -- the vessel was fixed that are -- they had. Because of the backlog, there is a floating storage right now in the U.S. Gulf. And in some cases, it's a mixed blessing.

We have ships that we have to wait. And therefore, one-month earnings $45,000 to $50,000 a day. But missing on the mix harbors that could be the same. But of course -- so this shows that there's a bit of concentration of crude carriers in the U.S.

Gulf. And then on the other hand, we ship most of our products, including the Panamaxes, which were, in a sense, considered dead. They're useless size of ships. Right now, trading a lot in the clean in far east.

That market is starting to heat up. And that has to do a lot with people, as you said, moving cargoes to be ready for 2020. So we'll have more products where usually Mediterranean and North European traders have moved to the Far East. Suezmax in [Inaudible].

And we have to say that used to be a -- of Middle East. And the West African traders have moved mainly to the United States and exporting from there. So -- and then [Inaudible] vessels and depending what could happen with the weather, we have action kit, all of them open right now because we're expecting to have increased products coming out in more -- from the [Inaudible] there.

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you, Nik. Given the -- of this positive outlook and the recovery of the rates, you hold a very strong liquidity position, a lot of cash in your balance sheet. Of course, you have to be prudent regarding the repayment of your debt. But it seems that the market helps to have a more flexibility and then look for alternative uses of capital, either acquisitions, buybacks.

I was wondering if this is in your thoughts. You had recently your strategy meeting, if you discussed any alternative uses of capital rather than sitting in your balance sheet. And what prevents you from buying back your stock that seems to be trading at steep NAV discount?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, the -- I would say the motto of this company and I -- the motto of this company is you only appreciate cash when you do not have it. And we have remained for the last 25 years, and then we decided not to try this motto. Because having ample liquidity, of course, it puts us in a strong position and gives us the flexibility to move in a position. I think one of the things that will make us -- would not make anybody more happy than myself and the management here, who control more than 40% of the company, is to be able to announce a significant increase in dividend rather than buy back when the time comes with the next results.

So I think that would be the priority. I would say opportunistic acquisition would results for shareholders. And then dividend -- I think a buyback that we have to be really, really in a steady state to do that. But that -- those too an idea where you are the next steps.

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

And one last question about your views on IMO 2020. I know that you were skeptical about the rush on the industry and the regulatory authorities to move so quickly before this fuel situation where the new compliant fuel safety has been resolved. Do you feel more confident right now that the industry can safely transition to 2020 with safer fuels? Has your view on potentially installing scrubbers has changed? And where do you see the spread developing? It seems that there are many conflicting views among shipowner. What is your view?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I will keep it simple. I think my view from scrubbers, please refer to Patty Rogers from here on out. So I will not get into this. [Inaudible] I think we share a lot of the same views.

As you know, I am -- as you know and perhaps you have read the -- just this week, the Port of Singapore among other major civilized ports is banning scrubbers, open-loop scrubbers. So I think this is a bit of a victory. What we have said along the issue of 2020 is a refining problem, not a shipping problem. And this is -- we feel very strong with it.

And I think that finally, the refiners in the oil bottom is -- I think would show that the owners have -- in fact, very strongly did not fall in the trap. And minute number of shipowners have won for scrubbers. So I think we will have a significant distillates for all five, and why not only one, which is [Inaudible] in the far east to do our job. So I think if a charter with a long charter who wants to pay for a scrubber, I mean, this is something we'll consider.

We are client friendly. We don't have any reason against -- but as a company, we feel very strongly that if this is a refiner problem, they should provide weather ships to burn safely and environmentally friendly. I believe that there is this reversed theory I think that I'll be mentioning to. As you know, I would make position as -- in [Inaudible].

I've been spending more time at the IMO than I want to remember. There's this reversed theory that because a lot of the refineries are giving up fuel production, the fuel production would be [Inaudible] and expensive. So the difference between the problems and [Inaudible], the first will be less. It's not here nor there.

But I believe every day that goes by, there is proof that more and more quality product will be put in the market.

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you very much, Nik. I appreciate your insights.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] We will now take our next question. Go ahead. Your line is now open.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hey, guys. It's Randy Giveans from Jefferies. How are you? Fotis asked most of the questions there. But I guess a few quick ones from me.

So you mentioned tanker rates across-the-board pretty much doubled or even tripled during 4Q '18. So can you give some guidance on your quarter-to-date spot rates earned on some of the opened Aframaxes or the Handymaxes?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I think what we've done in -- our Suezmaxes that are on the open market so we think they're in about the mid-40s, and the Aframax is in the high 20s.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

And that's just about 75% of date book?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We're talking about the fourth quarter for the ships that are on the open market or with profit-sharing arrangements.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Right. So with that, is about 75% or so of the days already booked for 4Q?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

OK. And then with the crude tanker rates still outperforming product tanker rates. Have you thought about switching more of your product tankers over to the crude rate?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. We're down I think to 13. What we don't know -- I mean, we have a balance sheet of about 25 product carriers. But in the last year, I think we took the view that those that the -- dirty market portfolio, so there's crude, the fuels are all outperforming.

The product show, we have -- certain that we're down to just the pink ships that are clean. I'm not sure if all those ships are on long-term charters with major [Inaudible], but are removing clean products. And we have seen some signs of recovery from more ships in the far east say, I would say, in the last month. So we have the last of what they have from us -- and [Inaudible] coming up for renewal in February.

And I think that in the -- if the market continues, we would also turn it back to -- we will have one less product carriers in the water.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Sure. OK. And then I guess last question here. Can you -- obviously, a lot of news about OPEC's meeting in Saudi, Russia.

And they were cutting about a one million barrels a day. Can you quantify this impact on the crude tanker trade?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

When it comes to -- we previously said that we are in an environment that demand is very, very strong. And the expectation for next year is 1.4 million barrels per day. So now we have some -- we hit some wildcards, I mean, Iran with the waivers being one of them. So we don't know what will happen when these waivers will come closer to their end.

And we know that the discussion about the build of the inventories and the office supply maybe is a little bit overblown. And therefore, any cuts that OPEC and friends might decide to do, we believe they're going to be moderate. And therefore, the effects on the tanker industry are not going to be significant. Let us not forget that usually the market progresses on one-month production data for one month.

And the latest data that we have from OPEC, Saudi Arabia is producing the highest that they had in quite some time. And also troubled spots like where production has not been stable like Libya and Venezuela appear to be coming back in a smaller wave. But I mean, if you compare their productions for 2018 and you take out the last month, you should not be certain that these gains can be sustained. When we think -- all these things are under consideration for those people that will make the decision on whether to cut and by how much.

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Got it, got it. All right. Well, hey, that's it for me. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

Hi, guys. This is Greg Wasikowski on for Mike Webber at Wells Fargo. Starting with the scrubbers, have your charters indicated any interest in installing the scrubbers? Or do you anticipate them expressing more interest in the next few months?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. What -- about the year -- no. It was about nine months ago there was an -- almost every single charter wanted a scrubber option for the contracts. And then, as you know, we have a very -- one of our -- perhaps, our largest charter is Aquanor.

We have nine vessels for long-term business. And they had an option for scrubbers. And I think they are environmentally very responsible, being a Scandinavian company, when they decided that they gave up the scrubber. Some other of our clients, for other reasons, have requested for us to look into scrubbers.

But it has -- it is winding down, which means the uses of scrubbers become less and less. We used to have banks running around trying to offer various ways of [Inaudible]. And a lot of those banks now are looking at it as a not a very green approach, and a lot of the shareholders are criticizing it. So it has been winding down, I would say, from -- in a fleet of 66 vessels, less than 10% of our charter has shown interest in doing that in scrubbers.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

OK. That makes sense.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

And we are chartering ships out and that was the idea, charter ships out in a period of two or three years so that they can -- the majority of this -- how it's going to turn into. And the charters are happy to charter ships to move out into the other dimension throughout the year.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

OK. And then from a modeling perspective, correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like you may have changed your methodology for calculating adjusted EBITDA from this quarter from last quarter. Did you exclude the effects of the preferred dividends? So why the change? And what will you be using going forward?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think we will be using exactly the -- that methodology we have rolled out. That will do so we'll just be using this one.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

OK. And is it -- and why -- can you give me any color on why the change to exclude the preferred dividends to this quarter as opposed to prior quarters?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, that was -- I mean, we will -- the actual EBITDA will be the end of the year EBITDA. And we're in the -- that period that will -- quarterly period, we had discussions with the auditors and they came up that this is the right way to calculate. I'm not sure, but we'll follow what the calculation is.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

OK. That makes sense. And then just on the crude spot rates, I think I saw somewhere in the data cadences that Q3 rates average lower than Q2 rates for your crude carriers when many of your peers reported higher Q3 rates than Q2. So can you just -- can you give a little bit more color around the rates that you're able to achieve in the third quarter? And maybe compared to the second quarter for your crude assets?

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think -- yes, that's a very good point. I think I said we outperformed these spot market by 60%. What happened -- because if you remember, I've always predicted this market will turn one day, I said.

But -- so what we -- we had a lot of our -- we decided that in the third quarter, a lot of the ships that were coming up from very long and profitable time charters, we'll keep them on the spot hoping that the market will turn. So that brought our comparison from what we have done in the previous quarter lower because we used the repositioning in the spot market. I think to be honest, yes, the market changed two months later than I was expecting. So we had to observe that period of between the reposition from the longtime charters to the new deliveries.

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

OK. That's helpful. That's it for me. I'll turn it over.

Thanks for your time.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

We have no further questions at this time.

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, thank you very much. And we are looking forward and let's hope that this will be at least the beginning of a positive couple of years. In the meantime, we're always making sure that our company outperforms the peer group and the market regardless of the cycle. We have navigated nine rough months without even -- we're keeping our liquidity and our dividend intact, and we hope to be able to have more of that.

Thank you very much.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 40 minutes

Call Participants:

Nicolas Bornozis -- President of Capital Link and Investor Relations Adviser

Takis Arapoglou -- Chairman of the Board

Nikolas Tsakos -- President and Chief Executive Officer

George Saroglou -- Chief Operating Officer

Paul Durham -- Chief Financial Officer

Fotis Giannakoulis -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Randy Giveans -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Greg Wasikowski -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst

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