South Sudan’s state-owned oil company, the Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), has been captured by predatory elites at the heart of the country’s brutal civil war. The company is almost entirely unregulated and has fallen under the direct control of the President and his inner circle, including the head of South Sudan’s oppressive Internal Security Bureau, who sits on Nilepet’s Board. This combination of capture and secrecy has allowed it to funnel millions in oil revenues to the country’s brutal security services and ethnic militias with limited oversight and accountability. Yet Nilepet is also deeply integrated into global oil supply chains. Little has been done to use the leverage of the international partners it depends on to challenge a company that sits at the heart of South Sudan’s conflict economy. This further undermines an already desperate situation, and risks linking international companies, traders, and lenders to atrocities and serious human rights abuses.

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