The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has set out an ambitious investment plan, for the next ten years, with the aim of strengthening its strategic role in global trade and ensuring its sustainability.  

The strategy was presented Tuesday, at a media event chaired by the Minister for Canal Affairs, Jose Ramón Icaza; the Canal Administrator, Ricaurte Vasquez; and the Deputy Administrator and Sustainability Officer, Ilya Espino de Marotta.

The Panama Canal Administrator Vasquez said that the ACP will invest more than $8 billion in strategic projects in four sectors: water availability; the construction of a pipeline for LPG;  a road connecting both Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as the construction of terminals built on either coast, with the terminals also able to accommodate containers and roll-on and roll-off cargo.

The building of the Rio Indio dam will both guarantee water for more than one million Panamanians and strengthen the reliability and certainty of transits through the Canal.

Ricaurte Vasquez, ACP Administrator, presenting to media

“The Canal depends on rainfalls”, said Vasquez. After the 2023- drought, the canal was forced to reduce daily vessel transits to 24, the ACP needs to find additional source of water as it depends on fresh water for the operation of the locks.

Construction for the dam is expected to begin in 2027 and would not be completed until 2032, with a cost estimated at $1.6 billion of which $400 million will be allocated for compensating and relocating about 2,500 residents from various communities whose villages would be flooded to create the dam.

The interoceanic energy corridor consists of a 76-kilometre gas pipeline and two maritime terminals that will allow up to 2.5 million barrels of energy products to be transported per day, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts without crossing the locks. The pipeline would allow for the transport of liquified petroleum gas, ethane, butane, and propane from the Atlantic side to a Pacific-side. Meetings with the industry will define how to structure the pipeline and which LPG would be transported. 

At the same time, the pre-feasibility study for the Port of Corozal is progressing in its contracting phase, with results expected in the first quarter of 2026 for construction to begin in 2028. The container port of Corozal, located on the east bank, will be integrated into a land logistics platform connected by road and rail.

The Panama Canal said it ensures an open and transparent process in the development of projects. In the case of the gas pipeline, the concessionaire process has already been approved by the Panama Canal Board of Directors and the ACP is approaching potential interested parties. The international tender and pre-qualification stage for companies will later follow.

The pipeline is not expected to be completed until 2030-2031.