When the corroded pipeline burst in 2015, inky crude spread along the Southern California coast, becoming the state’s worst oil spill in decades.
More than 140,000 gallons (3,300 barrels) of oil gushed, blackening beaches for 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, polluting a biologically rich habitat for endangered whales and sea turtles, killing scores of pelicans, seals and dolphins and decimating the fishing industry.
Plains All American Pipeline has accepted a 2022 $230 million settlement with fishermen and coastal owners without admitting responsibility. Federal inspectors found that the Houston-based company failed to quickly detect the rupture and responded too slowly. It faced an uphill battle to build a new pipeline.
Three-decade-old drilling rigs were later shut down, but another Texas-based fossil fuel company, backed by the Trump administration, purchased the operation and intends to pump oil through the pipeline again.
Sable Offshore Corp., headquartered in Houston, faces numerous legal challenges but is determined to restart production, even if it means confining it to federal waters, where state regulators have virtually no say. California controls the nearest 3 miles (5 kilometers) to shore. The platforms are 5 to 9 miles (8 to 14 kilometers) offshore.
The Trump administration has praised Sable’s plans as the kind of project the president wants to achieve. increase energy production in the United States as the federal government removes regulatory barriers. President Donald Trump has asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse his predecessor’s plan. ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts.
Environmentalists file suit to stop the project
“This project risks causing another environmental catastrophe in California at a time when demand for oil is declining and the climate crisis is intensifying,” said Alex Katz, executive director of the Environmental Defense Center, the Santa Barbara group formed in response to a massive oil spill in 1969.
The environmental organization is among many suing Sable.
“Our concern is that there is no way to make this pipeline safe and this company has proven that it cannot be trusted to operate safely, responsibly or even legally,” he said.
Actor and activist Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who lives in the area, implored authorities to stop Sable, saying at a March protest: “I can smell a rat. And this project is a rat.”
The California Coastal Commission fined Sable a record $18 million for ignoring cease-and-desist orders over repair work it said was done without a permit. Sable said she had permits from the previous owner, Exxon Mobil, and sued the commission while work continued on the pipeline. In June, a state judge ordered it stopped while the case moved through court.
The judge on Wednesday denied Sable’s request to dismiss the cease and desist orders. Sable, in a statement on the decision, pledged to appeal and find a way to restart the operation, citing his intention to confine it to federal waters.
“This rogue oil company has repeatedly abused the public trust, racking up millions of dollars in fines and causing environmental damage along the treasured Gaviota Coast,” a state park south of Santa Barbara, said Joshua Smith, a commission spokesman.
Sand keeps moving
So far, Sable remains undeterred.
The California attorney general’s office sued Sable this month, saying he illegally dumped waste into waterways and ignored state law requiring permits before working along the pipeline route that passes through sensitive wildlife habitat.
“Sable put profits ahead of environmental protection in its rush to bring oil to market,” the agency said in its lawsuit.
Last month, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney filed criminal charges against Sable, also accusing him of polluting waterways and harming wildlife.
Sable said he has fully cooperated with local and state agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and called the prosecutor’s allegations “inflammatory and extremely misleading.” He said a biologist and state fire officials supervised the work and no wildlife was harmed.
The company is seeking $347 million for the delays and says that if the state prevents it from restarting the onshore pipeline system, it will use a floating facility that would keep its entire operations in federal waters and use tankers to transport the oil to markets outside California. In a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company updated its plan to include the option.
Keeping the President’s Energy Promise
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Environmental Safety and Enforcement said in July that it was working with Sable to commission a second platform.
“President Trump has made it clear that American energy must come from American resources,” the agency’s deputy director, Kenny Stevens, said in a statement at the time, announcing “the story of the return of production to the Pacific.”
The agency said there are about 190 million barrels (6 billion gallons) of recoverable oil reserves in the region, nearly 80 percent of the Pacific’s remaining reserves. He noted progress in preventing and preparing for oil spills and said the failed pipeline had been rigorously tested.
“Continued monitoring and improved technology significantly reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future,” the agency said.
CEO says project could lower gas prices
On May 19 – the 10th anniversary of the disaster – CEO Jim Flores announced that Sable “is proud to have safely and responsibly achieved the first production at the Santa Ynez Unit” – which includes three platforms in federal waters, offshore and onshore pipelines, and the Las Flores Canyon processing facility.
State officials countered that the company had only conducted testing and not commercial production. Sable’s stock price fell, and some investors filed suit, alleging they were misled.
Sable purchased the Santa Ynez unit from Exxon Mobil in 2024 for nearly $650 million, primarily through a loan from Exxon. Exxon sold the closed operation after losing a legal battle in 2023 to truck crude through central California while the pipeline system was rebuilt or repaired.
Flores said tests on the Platform Harmony platform indicate there is plenty of oil to be extracted and that it will reduce California gas prices – among the highest in the country – by stabilizing supplies.
“Sable is very concerned about the collapse of the energy complex in California,” Flores said in a statement to The Associated Press. “With two refineries closing last year and more closing soon, California’s economy cannot survive without the strong energy infrastructure it has enjoyed over the past 150 years.”
California has been reducing its fossil fuel production for years in favor of clean energy. The movement was led in part by Santa Barbara County, where elected officials voted in May to begin taking steps to phase out onshore oil and gas operations.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana contributed to this report.
