The Widened Panama Canal -- June 9, 2016

Bloomberg is reporting:

Panama said it expects 20 million tons of liquefied natural gas to pass through its canal annually once the newly widened waterway is opened this month. That’s almost a tanker of gas a day traveling through, based on Bloomberg calculations.

“The canal opens the possibility for that gas to reach Asian markets in a more competitive way because the Panama Canal route is the shortest,” said Manuel Benitez, deputy administrator of canal authority, in an interview in Panama City on Wednesday. “We’ve already seen that many very large gas carriers have already made reservations.”

The $5.3 billion expansion to the canal is set to be inaugurated June 26, allowing it to handle the kind of massive tankers that transport liquefied natural gas. Its debut is fortuitous for U.S. gas producers as the shale boom has sent domestic supplies surging and drillers are looking to get their fuel to markets abroad.

The expanded canal will help U.S. gas producers by cutting the shipping time to markets in Asia, according to Skip Aylesworth, who manages $1.5 billion in holdings at Hennessy Funds in Boston, and who holds shares in LNG producer Cheniere Energy.

20 million tons of LNG converts to 168 million boe.