Panama Canal suffers nearly one-year lasting drought due to the abnormal weather disabling any normal operation.

The Authority of Panama Canal (APC) has given a notice to reduce the number of ships passing through the canal from 36 in October to 31 in November.

The chronic traffic jam of Panama Canal has been controversial with the repeated rises of gorge toll. Now the reduced number of ships has further worsened the serious condition. Especially it is severely influencing the very large gas carriers (VLGC) which transports LP gas produced in the U.S.

The American LP gas derived from shale gas oil are shipped from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean Ocean (Atlantic) and are exported to Japan through Panama Canal out to the Pacific Ocean. According to statistics of Japan LP Gas Association, America-made LP gas accounts for 66% of the whole imported LP gas in 2022, which tells high importance of Panama Canal.

Originally, Panama used to be the fifth-ranked country of high precipitation in the world (the statistics of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), but according to the climate change the precipitation has extremely decreased.

To save the use of water the APC has been controlling the daily number of ships passing through the canal. It caused an increase of 160 demurrage ships to use Panama Canal in the beginning of August. As a substantial time is required to pass the canal, the freight of LP gas tanker rose and affected the price of LP gas in Japan. The Panama Canal is a lock gate one having an overall length of about 80 km to connect north and south the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. As the canal uses the water of the Gatun Lake (man-made lake) which is located in the middle of the canal positioned 26 meter above sea level, it adopts a system having a three-staged lock gate to raise and lower the water level for ships to pass through the canal.

For this reason, an abundant amount of water (rain water) is indispensable for the smooth ship operation. However, the abnormal drought is disabling any usual operation.

According to the data of the Panama Canal Authority and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the country is going to experience the record-high driest year which competes for the first and second place in the observation history of 143 years.

The precipitation is lasting less 30 to 50% than the usual years. It is furthermore serious that the drought situation remains unforeseeable. The situation is feared to be prolonged to keep a normal operation of the Panama Canal.