Chevron has declined to continue funding engineering and design work for Guyana's proposed $1–2 billion Berbice deep-water port following its acquisition of Hess, according to Bechtel's Guyana manager, Harry Pastuszek.
Speaking at a conference panel last week, Pastuszek said Hess had funded the pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-FEED) that Bechtel completed two years ago, "with a notional agreement that they would continue to fund in partnership with the government as we pushed forward."
"Chevron acquired Hess and Chevron sort of sat down and said, 'you're doing what? Why would we? No, not going to do (it),'" he said.
Hess spent $4 million on the initial studies, Demerara Waves reported.
Feasibility work is continuing under a Guyana Government contract, updating a study completed around 2016 by the Inter-American Development Bank on connecting northern Brazil to an Atlantic port in Guyana. CrossBoundary Group is carrying out the study.
US Embassy senior commercial officer Bruce Ellsworth told the panel that the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) had given the government a letter of interest for financing an engineering design study for phase three to follow the feasibility work. A letter of interest is not a commitment to finance. Demerara Waves reported that the study could cost about $50 million.
Crab Island at the mouth of the Berbice River and the previously proposed CGX shorebase site are being considered as locations for the port.
Chevron completed its $55 billion acquisition of Hess in July 2025. The acquisition gave it a 30 per cent position in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.
