Shorebase investor rejects claim that Demerara River dredging will only benefit his company

Last Updated on Thursday, 30 January 2025, 18:49 by Writer

Well-known city businessman, Eddie Boyer has dismissed outrightly an assertion by a shipping industry expert that the US$60 million dredging of the Demerara River would only benefit his Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase Inc (VEHSI) which has been contracted by ExxonMobil for the next 20 years.

Former Chairman of the Shipping Association of Guyana, Andrew Astwood is on record as saying that the deepening, widening and extension of the Demerara River channel would not benefit city wharves where cargo ships dock to offload and onload imports and exports. Mr Astwood had said that the improvements would only benefit the shorebase which is located on an estimated 40-square mile artificial island.

Mr Boyer conceded that the wharves would not benefit directly from the dredging works done by his companies VEHSI and NRG Holdings, but emphasised that the upgrade of the channel marked a major first step for the waterway to accommodate much larger vessels.

“If we didn’t open the channel and widen the channel and spend 60 million (US) dollars of our money, tell me how it won’t benefit the other people?” he told Demerara Waves Online News. He said all vessels would have to enter the river from its mouth, considered Guyana’s major waterway to Georgetown, the administrative and commercial capital. “The front is widened for them, the front is widened for us. The front is widened for everybody,” Mr Boyer said.

The Guyana government has allocated money in the 2025 National Budget for the “critical” task of dredging. Mr Boyer indicated that dredging up river was the government’s responsibility in addition to Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase’s “tremendous job”.

Asked directly how far up river is the dredged area, he said “we go north, we don’t want to go up the river”. He said government and the Shipping Association have “to get their act together to come up to their ports”. He took issue with Mr Astwood saying that the works by Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase would not benefit the local shipping community, and said the veteran shipping executive should have acknowledged that “what VEHSI has done would open up the channel and help us quite a lot, now we got to get the other part done.”

“If they had to open up the channel for the 60 million dollars, they would have had to add 60 million dollars,” he said.

The Belgian-headquartered Jan de Nul Group has invested US$100 million in the construction of the US$260 million shorebase. ExxonMobil said that facility would be used for the production development of Yellowtail and other offshore oil wells.