Port financing structure will determine refinery investment pace – Pres Ali
President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali said discussions during Guyana’s recent visit to Qatar centred on financing the Berbice deep-water port, even as the country continues to receive proposals for establishing a refinery in Guyana.
“We did not discuss refinery particularly, but we discussed the issue of the deep-water port that is a critical part of the investment,” he said, responding to reporters at a press conference on Monday.
President Ali said Guyana has received two additional refinery proposals since the Qatar trip.
This development adds to an earlier proposal from a UAE government and investment delegation.
“We have two other such proposals [since] this trip to Qatar,” he said.
He was careful to separate the new proposals from the Qatar engagement itself: “In that context, yes, but not in Qatar as part of the refinery project. We have the proposal from the UAE group that was here, and I think one or two other proposals.”
Asked about the pace of that investment interest, President Ali pointed out the port’s financing as the determining factor.
“How we structure it, how we can structure the financing, given the costs of this port and having all of the type of development that will need the port, and the port will need to feed this existence,” he said.
Engineering firm Bechtel is conducting studies on the proposed Berbice deep-water port as the government examines how the project and its financing could be structured.
Discussions between the government and Bechtel on major infrastructure date back to 2020.
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat said this month that the port study is expected to be completed within two months, after which the government will determine how to proceed.
The port is expected to support Guyana’s planned second gas development, building on the Gas-to-Energy project at Wales. It forms part of the government’s wider infrastructure development plans for Region Six.
Guyana currently produces crude oil but imports its refined petroleum products. Offshore production reached 900,000 barrels per day in November 2025.
President Ali has said a domestic refinery, together with expanded fuel-storage capacity, could strengthen Guyana’s energy security and eventually position the country as a supplier of refined products to the wider CARICOM market.
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