Posted on 12/08/2023 9:58:25 AM PST by texas booster
The worsening bottlenecks at the drought-stricken Panama Canal are pushing at least one US diesel shipper to sail around the tip of South America en route to Chile for the first time since 2020.
The vessel Green Sky is hauling ultra-low sulfur diesel loaded at Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s Clifton Ridge terminal in Louisiana to Valparaiso, Chile, according to Bloomberg vessel tracking and Kpler. Rather than traversing through Panama, the vessel is headed down the eastern coast of South America toward the Strait of Magellan, the first such voyage for a cargo of Gulf Coast diesel since 2020, according to Kpler.
The journey is expected to take about a week longer than it would via the canal at a time when freight rates are near record highs.
The cost to haul fuel from the US Gulf Coast to Chile surged to a record $4.6 million per shipment in late November, according to data from Argus Media. That’s more than twice what it cost at the beginning of the year. Freight rates have surged as a historic drought left water levels in the Panama Canal so low that authorities have curtailed traffic, creating huge, prolonged delays.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
A significant portion of the canal isn’t - they used an existing lake(s) to get most of the way across. So there’s only a short amount of actual canals/locks connecting the oceans with the lakes.
Seawater, besides being expensive to pump that much water up that high, is also salty and would destroy the lakes if pumped into it. So fresh water is required to Ed so as to not contaminate the lakes too badly. And the only viable source of freshwater is.. the Lake!
Pumping seawater in to gigantic Gatun Lake would probably have a bad outcome
PANAMA CITY (AP) — A severe drought that began last year has forced authorities to slash ship crossings by 36% in the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important trade routes.
The new cuts announced Wednesday by authorities in Panama are set to deal an even greater economic blow than previously expected.
Canal administrators now estimate that dipping water levels could cost them between $500 million and $700 million in 2024, compared to previous estimates of $200 million.
One of the most severe droughts to ever hit the Central American nation has stirred chaos in the 50-mile maritime route, causing a traffic jam of boats, casting doubts on the canal’s reliability for international shipping and raising concerns about its affect on global trade.
The 0.0 megaton nukes of 1913 were too small for the job and I doubt even todays nukes could move the Gulf of Mexico to the southern Caribbean.
"Even after"? I think "because" would describe the situation better.
As every schoolboy knows, the Panama Canal connects the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea which then meets up with the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,000 kilometers to the north.
Good catch!
Who knew that even the great Chinese engineers could foul up so badly, after most of a century of Communism and Mao.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.