Pins matching tag:Pipeline

Meeting in Santa Barbara, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-3 for an $18,022,500 penalty and unanimously issued a cease-and-desist order and a restoration order over Sable's unpermitted repair work on the Las Flores pipelines along the Gaviota Coast. Sable says the work is authorized by permits issued in the 1980s.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Donna Geck granted environmental groups a partial preliminary injunction: Sable may not restart the onshore Las Flores pipelines until 10 court days after it certifies that every required approval is in hand. The suits say the State Fire Marshal waived corrosion rules without environmental review.

District Attorney John Savrnoch charged Sable with five felony Water Code counts for knowingly discharging fill into waterways and 16 Fish and Game Code misdemeanors over its pipeline repair digs at creeks such as Arroyo Quemada and Nojoqui Creek. Sable called the charges politically motivated and misleading.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle finalized his tentative ruling against Sable Offshore, holding that the company's repair work at 121 sites along its 135-mile Gaviota Coast pipeline required California Coastal Commission development permits and violated the Coastal Act. The ruling leaves intact the injunction halting further repairs and keeps the Commission's $18 million fine a live issue.

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.

A two-judge Ninth Circuit panel turned down an emergency appeal by the Environmental Defense Center and Center for Biological Diversity seeking to block the federal restart permit granted to Sable Offshore's Santa Ynez Unit pipelines, sending the company's stock surging. The terse December 31 order is not the end: the court put the case on an expedited schedule, with its first deadline on January 26.

A Santa Barbara Superior Court upheld its July preliminary injunction blocking Sable Offshore Corp. from restarting the Las Flores onshore pipeline system that ruptured at Refugio State Beach in 2015, requiring 10 court days' notice before any restart. The ruling also clarifies that the Trump administration's December move to seize control of the system and issue an emergency special permit does not affect the court's prior decision.

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%.

State Parks sued Sable and its Pacific Pipeline Co. for continuing trespass, saying the 30-year easement for the four miles of Line CA-325 under Gaviota State Park expired in 2016, and asked a court to stop the oil and order the pipe removed. A federal judge later refused to halt the flow.

Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Energy Department and Secretary Chris Wright, arguing the Defense Production Act order that restarted Sable's Las Flores pipelines exceeds his authority and overrides state law, a state court injunction and the federal Refugio consent decree. The case runs in federal court in Los Angeles.

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.

Santa Barbara County Judge Donna Geck refused to lift the injunction blocking Sable Offshore Corp. from restarting its Santa Ynez Unit pipelines, rejecting for the first time the company's claim that a federal Defense Production Act order overrides California law. She set a May 22 hearing on whether Sable, which resumed moving oil in March, should be held in contempt.

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.

A Ninth Circuit panel heard California and seven conservation groups argue that PHMSA unlawfully claimed federal control of Sable Offshore's onshore Las Flores pipelines and approved their restart; the case turns on whether oil processed at Las Flores Canyon is still in interstate transportation.

Attorney General Rob Bonta and the State Fire Marshal petitioned the Ninth Circuit to overturn PHMSA's 25 June special permit, which lets Sable Offshore run the onshore CA-324 and CA-325 lines without the rule to repair longitudinal seam weld corrosion within 180 days.

By 215 votes to 214, the House added Rep. Wesley Hunt's amendment to the 2027 defense bill, authorizing the Defense Secretary to acquire easements, including by condemnation, along Sable Offshore's Santa Ynez Pipeline System through state land and Gaviota State Park.

On 24 July 2026 Sanofi announced it was discontinuing development of its OX40-ligand antibody amlitelimab in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and would not file it with regulators.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied California's bid to suspend a Defense Production Act order requiring operation of Sable Offshore's Santa Ynez Pipeline, holding the federal order lawfully preempts state efforts to shut it down. The court also shifted pipeline safety oversight under the consent decree from California's Office of the State Fire Marshal to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

California asked the Ninth Circuit to reverse Judge Stephen Wilson's refusal to block Energy Secretary Chris Wright's Defense Production Act order, which keeps oil flowing through Sable Offshore's onshore Santa Ynez Pipeline System over state objections.

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.

Multiple drone attacks on the morning of 10 September 2026 damaged three pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's 1,200 km East-West oil pipeline and forced its shutdown; Riyadh blamed drones launched from Iraq, a claim an Iraqi umbrella group denied.

Seven groups led by the Environmental Defense Center and the Center for Biological Diversity asked the Ninth Circuit to overturn PHMSA's 25 June special permit, which waives corrosion-repair rules for the onshore lines that caused the 2015 Refugio spill.

Santa Barbara County's Board of Supervisors voted to send the Senate a letter opposing the House's Hunt Amendment, which would let the Defense Secretary take easements, including by condemnation, along Sable Offshore's Santa Ynez Pipeline System.

The Ninth Circuit has set a hearing in San Francisco on three consolidated petitions by California and conservation groups against PHMSA's takeover of Sable Offshore's onshore pipelines from state regulators and its approval of their restart.

Around 4,000 km of new pipelines and 17 compression trains are to add 3.15 billion cubic feet a day to the network that carries gas across Saudi Arabia, built under 15 contracts worth about $8.8 billion.