Pins matching tag:Sable

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.

Sable Offshore posted a $197.0 million net loss for Q1 2026 after resuming oil sales from the Santa Ynez Unit under a U.S. Department of Energy Defense Production Act order, and ended the quarter with $956.3 million of short-term debt against $52.2 million in cash.

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.

Sable launched and priced a stock sale at $3.08 a share and 6.5% convertible notes due 2031, which with a $675 million, 15% term loan paid off roughly $991 million it owed ExxonMobil for the Santa Ynez Unit. The shares lost about half their value on the day.

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.

Sable Offshore reported $137.1 million of revenue and $9.4 million of operating cash flow for the second quarter of 2026, its first full quarter of sales since the Santa Ynez Unit restart, and ended June selling about 40,000 net barrels of oil a day.

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.

A federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed with prejudice the Center for Biological Diversity's suit over BOEM's decision to let Sable Offshore restart Platform Harmony without revising its 1980s development plan, finding the groups lacked standing.

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.

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.

Sable Offshore expects the Hondo platform offshore California to come back online by the end of September 2026, the third Santa Ynez Unit platform restarted after Heritage and Harmony. On its August earnings call management said the 45-year-old platform needed about 50% more work than expected and that it was "hoping" to hit the September timing. Hondo is expected to produce lower-sulfur crude that should bring field-wide sulfur content back to normal levels.

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.

Sable Offshore’s October 26 announcement schedules its third-quarter 2026 financial and operating results for Monday November 9, before the market opens.