Dry Panama Risks Driving Large Oil Tankers Away From the Canal
- Transit slots could fall to half of waterway’s normal capacity
- Container ships seen snapping up booking slots before tankers
Vessels transit the Panama Canal.
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Dry weather is set to force large oil tankers to completely stop using the Panama Canal, requiring the vessels to extend their voyages by thousands of miles, a shipping researcher said.
The Panama Canal Authority last week announced increasingly drastic cuts to how many ships it will allow through each day. It did so because Gatun Lake, which sits atop the waterway and feeds the locks below, has historically low water levels. By February, daily transit slots could drop to about half the waterway’s normal capacity.