Still Waiting for the Bonanza: The Oil Business in South Sudan after 2005

The paper examines the oil sector in South Sudan since 2005, when the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached between the Government of the former Sudan and the then rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. It argues that, as in many low-income countries, the benefits from the oil sector have been reaped mainly by a small number of people who control the government or have links to powerful persons in the government. The interests of ordinary people in the sector have been largely ignored. The ordinary people are still waiting for the benefits of oil extraction in this nearly two-year old country.