[thackney]

Even the smallest Coastal Tankers are going to be a tight fit for passage through the new larger 3rd set of Panama Locks. The problem is the draft (depth).

The corresponding maximum dimensions for vessels that will transit these {new panama} locks are 366 meters LOA, 49 meters in beam and 15.2 meters in tropical freshwater (TFW) draft.

Dimensions for Future Lock Chambers and “New Panamax” Vessels
http://www.pancanal.com/common/maritime/advisories/2009/a-02-2009.pdf

Tanker Size

Class	Length	Beam	Draft	Overview
Coastal Tanker	205 m	29 m	16 m	Less than 50,000 dwt, mainly used for transportation of refined products (gasoline, gasoil).
Aframax	245 m	34 m	20 m	Approximately 80,000 dwt (Average Freight Rate Assessment).
Suezmax	285 m	45 m	23 m	Between 125,000 and 180,000 dwt, originally the maximum capacity of the Suez Canal.
VLCC	330 m	55 m	28 m	Very Large Crude Carrier. Up to around 320,000 dwt. Can be accommodated by the expanded dimensions of the Suez Canal. The most common length is in the range of 300 to 330 meters.
ULCC	415 m	63 m	35 m	Ultra Large Crude Carrier. Capacity exceeding 320,000 dwt. The largest tankers ever built have a deadweight of over 550,000 dwt.

Source: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/tankers.html

[Ben Ficklin]

The key sentence I just read at EIA says: "However, while many larger tankers will be able to transit the canal after 2014, some ULCC's will still be unable to make the transit."

Source

Key phrase is "some will be unable" which infers that some will be able to transit. However I don't know how many "some" is nor do I know how many ULCC's there are or how many there are relative to other tankers