Supertanker Pays Record $4.6 Million to Skip Panama Canal Line

By Nicholas Lua, Lucia Kassai and Weilun Soon (Bloomberg) – An empty gas supertanker paid a record $4.6 million to skip the line at the Panama Canal next week as the Iran war and an intensifying El Niño upend global trade routes.

The fee, paid via an auction process, will allow the 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. It’s the second large sum paid this week after a shipper earlier shelled out $4 million for a container vessel to avoid congestion in the waterway.

The El Niño weather pattern that’s strengthening in the Pacific is threatening to bring severe drought to Central America, and operators of the canal have already tightened restrictions on how much cargo ships can carry while passing through the waterway. The El Niño of 2023-2024 caused severe drought conditions in Panama, forcing ships to find alternatives to the canal.

It’s unclear who paid the fee for G. Arete, owned by South Korea’s SK Shipping Co. The company did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Through a spokeswoman, the Panama Canal Authority declined to comment on the specific transaction details, citing confidentiality of their customers. The canal said in a statement that recent median auction results have tripled, reflecting significantly higher demand, from median auction prices around $55,000 during October 2025 and February 2026.

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.

This week’s $4.6 million bid surpasses a previous record of $4.2 million earlier this year, said one of the people, asking not to be named to discuss private information.

G. Arete is 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 as many as 11 days to secure passage at auction, the highest since May for Pacific-to-Atlantic transit, according to data from Argus Media.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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This article contains reporting from Bloomberg, published under license.

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