LNG

The Panama Canal Authority, which is trying to increase transits by liquefied natural gas carriers and other energy vessels and containerships, said it would again increase the number of ships that transit the waterway daily as water levels start to recover on the Canal after a prolonged drought blamed on the “El Niño” weather effects.

The Panama Canal Authority has further reduced ship transits because of drought blamed on the “El Niño” weather effects to 24 vessels in November and booking slots will be cut to 22 ships in December, hitting LNG, oil and containership traffic on the Atlantic-Pacific Basin crossings and sending bidding for slots up to $2 million or more as waiting times grow to more than a week.

The Qatari Q-Flex liquefied natural gas carrier “Al Safliyah”, the largest LNG vessel to transit the expanded Panama Canal, was berthing offshore Cheniere Energy’s US export plants in the Gulf of Mexico to lift a cargo.

The Qatari Q-Flex liquefied natural gas carrier, the “Al Safliyah”, has become the largest LNG vessel to transit the expanded Panama Canal in a test for future tanker movements that could improve the economics of the export plant build-out on the US Gulf Coast.

The 210,100 cubic metres capacity Qatari Q-Flex LNG carrier, the “Al Safliyah” will become the largest LNG vessel to transit the expanded Panama Canal next week.

The Panama Canal Authority will boost the number of daily reserved transit slots available for LNG vessels by reserving night-time slots starting in October 2018 and would make more infrastructure improvements to allow another increase by 2022.

The Panama Canal Authority said it expected LNG carrier traffic to increase by around 50 percent by the fourth quarter of 2018 as more US cargo export capacity comes on stream.