South Sudan: South Sudan Chaos Halts Ex-Blackwater CEO’s Refinery Plan

May 23, 2014 | Ilya Gridneff, Bloomberg
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As the former head of U.S. security company Blackwater USA, Erik Prince thrived in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. South Sudan, the world’s newest nation where violence erupted in December, is proving a little tougher.

Prohibitive costs, transport difficulties, political instability and growing insecurity have rendered the former U.S. Navy Seal’s plan to build an oil refinery in the north of the country unfeasible for the time being, said Sean Rump, a partner at Prince’s Frontier Resource Group. Talks this month with financiers failed to revive the project that was set to be completed by December, he said in an interview on May 18.