South Korea’s SK Gas paid a record $5.3 million to secure priority passage through the Panama Canal for the liquefied petroleum gas carrier G. Spirit, according to the waterway’s deputy administrator.
Ilya Espino de Marotta told AFP that the payment covered priority passage ahead of restrictions linked to the El Niño weather pattern. The vessel was scheduled to transit on 1 September, two days before canal authorities were due to begin lowering the number of ships allowed to cross each day.
The canal operates a booking system in which ships generally reserve passage well before arriving. It also auctions last-minute slots, giving operators a way to avoid a queue when timing is commercially important. Ships arriving without reservations were waiting an average of five days, AFP reported.
The $5.3 million payment stands far above recent auction norms. According to a Panama Canal Authority statement cited by AFP, the average auction price from October 2025 through February 2026 was about $55,000. The previous pressure on priority access was illustrated in April, when a liquefied natural gas carrier paid $4 million to avoid waiting as war in the Middle East increased demand for moving essential cargo through the route.
Canal authorities planned to reduce daily transits from 36 to 34 beginning on 3 September, followed by another cut to 32 later in the month. The restrictions were tied to lower water levels caused by a severe regional drought associated with El Niño. Panama declared an emergency over the conditions on Tuesday.
El Niño involves unusually warm surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. The pattern changes winds and rainfall around the world and can produce irregular weather. In Panama, the immediate operational concern was diminishing water availability in the canal system, which limits how many vessels can make the crossing.
The Panama Canal carries about 5% of global maritime trade, making changes to its capacity consequential beyond the isthmus. A reduction of several daily slots can increase competition among carriers whose schedules, cargo commitments and onward connections depend on predictable passage. The record auction price shows the premium at least one shipper was prepared to pay for certainty before capacity tightened.
The reported fee should be understood as the price of priority rather than a general transit rate for all vessels. The AFP account did not give the G. Spirit’s cargo destination, the value of its shipment or SK Gas’s calculation for bidding at that level. It did, however, place the transaction within a transparent auction mechanism used for urgent, unbooked passage.
The scheduled 1 September crossing will put the G. Spirit ahead of the first planned reduction. Further auction results and waiting times will indicate how strongly the lower daily limits affect demand for priority slots.
