Texas company restarts oil pipeline from platforms off Santa Barbara
At the order of the Trump administration, Sable Offshore Oil Corp. resumed transporting oil through Santa Barbara County pipelines this weekend — violating a court order.
That pipeline crosses San Luis Obispo County at the Cuyama River before reaching Pentland Station in Kern County.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright ordered Sable to transport oil from the Las Flores Canyon processing facility on the Gaviota Coast to Pentland Station, the company announced on Monday.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps, who represents the Second District, said the decision erodes local authority. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted against transferring permits to Sable based on concerns about the pipeline’s integrity.
“This announcement by Secretary Wright is yet another interference in local control and serving the people in our community — and possibly an attempt to distract the public from skyrocketing gas prices due to the war in Iran,” Capps said in a statement.
As part of the restart, Sable plans to reactivate the pipeline that ruptured in 2015 and caused the Refugio oil spill under the previous owner.
The pipeline was owned by Plains All American Pipeline at the time of the spill. ExxonMobil later purchased the pipeline and then transferred it to Sable in 2024.
Sable was originally prevented from restarting the pipeline because of an injunction agreed to by Plains in the aftermath of the spill. The injunction required any operator to submit a restart plan to the Office of the State Fire Marshal before it could resume production.
In October, the Office of the Fire Marshal said the pipeline required more repairs and testing before being used. The state never gave Sable permission to resume operations.
Sable said it completed repairs and testing in May, then appealed to have the injunction lifted. Meanwhile, the Environmental Defense Center asked the court to uphold the injunction.
At the direction of the federal government, Sable resumed use of the pipeline this weekend without permission from the court or the state fire marshal.
“For Trump to try to override California officials trying to protect our ocean and our wildlife is an extreme abuse of power,” Center for Biological Diversity senior oceans campaigner Brady Bradshaw told The Tribune. “This action is putting hundreds of miles of extremely beautiful coastline at risk of another oil spill.”
On Tuesday, Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Donna Geck continued the case related to the injunction to April 17. This means the injunction is still in place, but the court hasn’t yet made a move to enforce it, according to the Environmental Defense Center.
Sable is able to transport 200,000 barrels of oil per day though the pipeline. As of Saturday, Sable had 540,000 barrels of processed crude oil in storage at Los Flores Canyon ready for transport, the company said.
Sable plans to reach full oil production at Platform Harmony and Platform Heritage this month and resume production at Platform Hondo in June, the company said in the release.
The company’s goal is to start selling about 50,000 barrels per day by April 1.
Surfrider’s Central California regional manager Bill Hickman said he’s concerned about a repeat of the 2015 oil spill, when the corroded pipeline released more than 100,000 gallons of oil into the ocean and killed hundreds of marine mammals.
“Oil-stained beaches and dead wildlife are still a vivid memory from the oil spill,” Hickman told The Tribune. “Surfrider is really concerned about the potential for another oil spill that would impact marine life and coastal towns.”
Sierra Club Santa Barbara chair Maureen Ellenberger agreed.
“These pipelines are incredibly risky, and the risk is not offset by the tiny impact it would have on the price of oil,” she said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would sue over the federal decision to authorize the restart.
“This is an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators are facing criminal charges and prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting,” he said in a statement Friday. “California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment and our $51 billion coastal economy. The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.”
Why restart oil production at Sable?
President Donald Trump activated the Defense Production Act on Friday, empowering Wright to order Sable to resume oil transport, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a news release.
Reauthorizing Sable to operate will result in a 15% increase in California’s in-state oil production, the news release said.
“The Trump administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first,” Wright said in the release. “Unfortunately, some state leaders have not adhered to those same principles, with potentially disastrous consequences not just for their residents, but also our national security. Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness.”
Environmental Defense Center executive director Alex Katz, however, said resuming Sable’s operations will not improve the price of gas.
“A defective pipeline operating at high pressure with no legal guardrails is a threat to public safety, to our economy and to the entire coast,” he said in a statement. “This has nothing to do with gas prices or the military. What we’re seeing is an abuse of power and a corruption of federal law for the benefit of the president’s friends, with potentially disastrous consequences for everyone else. Not only does this represent a real threat, but it undermines the right of California and potentially every other state to protect its own people and its own environment.”
Rep. Salud Carbajal also condemned Sable’s decision to resume operations.
“President Trump is using the war in Iran as a pretext to override the will of Santa Barbara County residents and the state of California,” Carbajal said in a statement. “The reality is that restarting the Sable project would produce nowhere near enough oil to lower the skyrocketing gas prices families are facing. His reckless war is causing immense damage, and jamming the Sable project through is a hollow solution. Once again, the president is prioritizing Big Oil over the well-being of our community. I will continue to fight this federal overreach in Congress and stand with our local partners as they pursue legal challenges in court.”
The California Legislative Central Coast Caucus, which includes State Legislators Dawn Addis, Gregg Hart and John Laird, agreed.
“Our economy on the Central Coast relies heavily upon the pristine quality of its natural environment,” a joint statement from the legislators said. “New oil drilling on the coast will recklessly jeopardize our fisheries, coastal communities and marine ecosystems. Our constituents know all too well the irreversible damage that these facilities will cause — they are still recovering from the 2015 Refugio oil spill and the very same pipeline that the federal administration plans to reopen.”
San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Bruce Gibson also condemned the pipeline.
“Resuming production at Platform Harmony is yet another example of the Trump administration’s assault on California,” Gibson said in a statement. “I expect this decision will be struck down in court, as so many of their others have — but this episode should energize SLO County residents to countinue our decades-long fight against offshore oil.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Texas company restarts oil pipeline from platforms off Santa Barbara."
