LNG Shippers Have a $45,000-a-Day Problem at the Panama Canal

(Bloomberg) -- Liquefied natural gas shippers are dealing with costly delays in getting tankers through the Panama Canal, according to Octavio Simoes, president of LNG export terminal developer Sempra LNG & Midstream. Every day a cargo is held up at at the canal can cost a trader $45,000, he said at Energy Dialogues LLC's North American Gas Forum in Washington Monday.

More than one-third of ships are running up against delays in getting through the canal, and “we are working with the current administration” to fix that, Simoes said, warning that the holdup could limit the amount of LNG the U.S. can sell to Asia.

Read this story for more on how a Panama Canal expansion reshaped the global LNG trade.

To contact the reporter on this story: Naureen S. Malik in New York at nmalik28@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net.