EIA: New Panama Locks Won't Affect Tanker Market

In its latest weekly review of trends in petroleum, the U.S. Energy Information Agency examined how the new Panama Canal expansion will affect crude and product supplies on the North American market – and forecasts that it will have little impact.

"Because of the economics of shipping, trade patterns, and the types of ships used to transport crude and petroleum products, this latest expansion is expected to have a limited effect on most petroleum markets,” EIA said in a statement Wednesday.

VLCCs and ULCCs, the largest oil tankers, are too large for the new locks, and the economics of crude oil shipments favor larger vessels. Product tankers are a different class altogether in terms of their principal dimensions, and many can transit the existing locks or the new locks (depending on the specifics of their beam and their draft).

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