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A corroded 24-inch Plains All American Pipeline line carrying crude from ExxonMobil's Las Flores Canyon plant ruptured beside Highway 101 near Refugio State Beach, sending oil down a culvert into the Pacific. The spill shut the pipeline and, with it, the three Santa Ynez Unit platforms for more than a decade.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued an emergency special permit for segments 324 and 325 of the interstate Santa Ynez Pipeline System, approving Sable Offshore's enhanced integrity management practices and setting operational conditions. It is a step toward restarting the onshore transportation that has kept Sable's restarted Santa Ynez Unit oil in storage rather than on sale.

Sable Offshore resumed shipping crude from Las Flores Canyon to Pentland Station through the Santa Ynez Pipeline System on March 14, 2026, complying with a Defense Production Act order issued by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The company expects first sales by April 1, 2026 at a gross oil rate of 50,000 Bbls/d, which it says would raise domestic crude supply into the California market by about 17%.

Two weeks after restarting the pipeline under the federal Defense Production Act order, Sable made its first oil sales in a decade, filling the line from Las Flores Canyon to Pentland Station at more than 50,000 barrels a day and selling to Chevron. Platform Harmony was producing about 22,000 barrels a day, with Heritage set to follow.

The federal pipeline regulator waived its 180-day deadline for repairing longitudinal seam weld corrosion on Lines CA-324 and CA-325 until June 2036, in exchange for in-line inspections every six to nine months and stricter repair criteria. It replaces the emergency permit that expired in February.

Six months after restarting, Sable Offshore began excavating 12 anomalies flagged by in-line inspection on the onshore pipeline that ruptured in 2015, seven of them in the coastal zone; any spot with wall loss of 40% or more must be repaired.

Danish-style village decorates for the holidays with lights, markets and Santa's arrival.