(Bloomberg) — An empty gas supertanker will cut the line at the Panama Canal next week after a bumper payment of $4.6 million, as the Iran war upends global energy flows and redraws established trade routes.
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The fee, paid via an auction process, will allow liquefied petroleum gas tanker G. Arete to speed through to the Caribbean side of the canal from the Pacific Ocean, according to traders, brokers and a shipping report seen by Bloomberg. The figure exceeds the near-record $4 million paid earlier this week for a container ship to skip the line, as war-related congestion and falling water levels increase wait times.
It’s unclear who paid the fee for G. Arete, which is owned by South Korea’s SK Shipping Co. Both the company and the Panama Canal Authority did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Ships seeking to cross the waterway typically pay a flat rate via a reservation process, but the canal authority also offers an auction system to bypass the regular queue. Customers are shelling out millions to use the workaround, as the Iran war leads to more traffic through the key conduit.
G. Arete is currently sailing around Panama’s south coast and signaling Balboa, a region where vessels typically wait to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. The US is a major supplier of LPG to buyers in East Asia, and the canal is the shortest route between the regions.
At present, some Neopanamax-size vessels without booked transit slots — carrying everything from LPG to containers — have waited up to 11 days to secure passage at auction, the highest since May for Pacific-to-Atlantic transit, according to data from Argus Media.
–With assistance from Ruth Liao and Myungshin Cho.
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