Sable Resumes Southern California Pipeline Platform Operations, Plans First Sales by April
Sable Offshore Corp. has restarted the Santa Ynez Unit portion of its Southern California system following directions from the Department of Energy and President Trump and anticipates its first sales by April, the company said Monday.
“Sable Offshore is putting California consumers first by increasing domestic supply of crude oil into the California market by approximately 17% and we look forward to continuing to execute as so ordered by the Defense Production Act executed on March 13, 2026,” Sable Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Flores said in a news release on Monday.
The company said it resumed hydrocarbon transportation from the Las Flores Canyon to Pentland Station on March 14. The company complied with the newly amended federal Defense Production Act, which was signed by President Trump on March 13.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright’s ordered the company to restart transporting its hydrocarbons from the SYU through its Santa Ynez Pipeline System to “address the energy scarcity and supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil.”
“We look forward to working closely with the Department of Energy in fully complying with the DPA and working with the Trump administration to take all necessary steps to deliver the energy necessary for the security and defense of the country,” Flores said in the company statement.
The Houston-based company plans to launch first sales by April 1 at an expected gross oil rate of 50,000 b/d. Sable is currently producing hydrocarbons from its Platform Harmony at the SYU, which is located south of the Gaviota Coast. Production is expected to ramp up and reach full capacity at Platforms Harmony and Heritage this month and Platform Hondo, located closest to the shore, in June 2026.
Onshore repair and testing for the pipeline system was completed in May 2025, the company said. The Las Flores Canyon had roughly 540,000 bbl of processed crude oil in storage, which the company said represented more than the minimum volume required for the pipeline between LFC and Pentland Station.
Production from the unit has been shut for about 10 years, OPIS previously reported, after a leak resulted in a spill of more than 3,300 bbl of oil into the Pacific Ocean off Refugio State Beach in 2015. The incident was considered to be the state’s worst coastal oil spill in 25 years.
The company also sued the California Department of Parks and Recreation on March 13, requesting their rights under the DPA to be confirmed. The department responded March 14 with a letter that denied Sable’s easement request, and demanded the company immediately remove the pipeline since its temporary pipeline easement had expired in 2016. The department ceased easement extension negotiations and said that it will pursue legal action if a pipeline removal plan was not submitted within 10 days of the March 14 letter.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Friday that resumption of the unit “wouldn’t lower prices by a cent.”
“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay. Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches,” Newsom said in a statement. “The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.”
Reporting by Shaheer Naveed, snaveed@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com