ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses why and how the exploitation of oil reserves has not led to development and stability but has instead worsened ethnic schisms and violent conflicts in the country. The ruling elites in South Sudan have largely exploited oil reserves for their own benefit and that of their loyalists, many of them from their communities. The local elites associated with the government have been mobilising youth from the Dinka community in Ruweng to secure the oil areas in that part of former Unity State. In 'Oil Business as Usual', the continuity of the ills of weak political will to institute effective institutions and poor governance of the oil sector, uneven development, tribalism or ethnic favoritism and prejudices, as well as on violence after the birth of the South Sudanese state. To a great extent, the economic woes are linked to overdependence on oil revenues as well as on the impact of the war on the oil sector.
