State Fire Marshall grants waivers for Sable Offshore’s plans to restart local oil production
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – On Tuesday, the California Office of the State Fire Marshall granted safety waivers for two pipelines necessary to restart oil production on the Central Coast.
According to an 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Sable Offshore expects to begin hydrotesting the two pipelines in question in January of 2025 with an estimated potential restart of offshore oil production in Santa Barbara County in the first quarter of 2025.
The two pipelines mentioned in Tuesday's waiver are referred to as CA-324 and CA-325, formerly lines 901 and 903, respectively. Line 901 ruptured in the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill, which impacted 150 miles of California coast, destroying thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.
"We appreciate the state Fire Marshal’s approval, recognizing our robust safety measures, which go above and beyond state and federal requirements, including the federal court’s Consent Decree," said Sable Offshore's Vice President of Environmental and Governmental Affairs Steve Rusch. "By the time of restart, this pipeline will meet more stringent safety requirements than any other pipeline in the state."
According to a Sept. 3, 2024, SEC filing, Sable Offshore told investors it reached a conditional settlement agreement on Aug. 30, 2024, with Santa Barbara County. The County agreed that installing the 16 new safety valves underground removed those installations from its jurisdiction.
While work began on preparing pipelines to restart production and compliance with the above conditional settlement, the California Coastal Commission issued a Notice of Violation to Sable Offshore on Sep. 27, 2024.
In a letter sent on the same day as the Coastal Commission's Notice of Violation, state legislators and environmental groups asked the State Fire Marshal to conduct an environmental review before granting a state waiver to the Houston-based company.
After a second notice was sent about unpermitted construction work by Sable Offshore in the coastal zone, work was halted until Sable Offshore applies for a coastal development permit.
That cease and desist notice remains in effect for 90 days from the date of issuance on Dec. 12, 2024, or until a permit from the Coastal Commission is issued for the work noted the Environmental Defense Center.
Tuesday's decision by the Office of State Marshall drew the ire of environmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Center, which joined other organizations urging Governor Newsom to intervene in the restart plans in a letter on Dec. 12.
"The Central Coast has already lived through two major oil spill disasters, including one caused by this same pipeline," said Alex Katz, Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), a nonprofit environmental law firm opposing the pipeline's restart in a press release about the decision Thursday. "California should be leading the country to address the climate crisis and phase out this kind of unsafe and unnecessary fossil fuel production. Instead, by clearing the way for this project, the Newsom administration is bringing back a massive source of greenhouse gas emissions and inviting another environmental disaster in our own state."
The image below from an investor presentation, courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commission, shows the oil production infrastructure purchased by Sable Offshore from ExxonMobil in February of this year, collectively called the Santa Ynez Unit.
"Disappointing," was how Katz described Tuesday's decision by the Office of State Fire Marshall when reached for comment.
"We are looking at all options," Katz added before explaining his organization is still waiting definitive information about the decision's conditions from the Office of State Fire Marshall.
