A reservation to transit the Panama Canal has broken a new record amid a crisis that has led officials to turn away all ships without a pre-booked slot.

The situation comes as the Panama Canal Authority, which runs the century-old waterway, has taken increasingly drastic measures to confront a water level crisis that had already cut traffic flows.

A booking slot auctioned on Wednesday has fetched a record price of just under $4m, Flex LNG chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said on a conference call with analysts.