Sable Offshore has resumed sales of oil from the Santa Ynez Unit
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – On Monday, Sable Offshore announced that it started selling oil from the Santa Ynez Unit to at least one private recipient over the weekend.
According to Sable, onshore pipelines were filled from the Las Flores Canyon processing facility to Pentland Station in Kern County at a rate of over 50,000 barrels of oil per day.
Since onshore pipeline Line 901, now known as Line 324, ruptured in 2015, the damaged pipelines and broader oil production infrastructure has been shut down and oversight of its restart was assigned to the Office of State Fire Marshal through a federal court order.
Despite that federal consent decree requiring the state safety agency to manage restart plans, earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a slip opinion that argued the President, or a designated person, can order Sable Offshore, the company seeking to restart oil production since purchasing local oil production infrastructure collectively called the Santa Ynez Unit from ExxonMobil in February of 2024, to begin oil production immediately -skirting federal, state, and local regulatory authority- for national security purposes.
On March 13, 2026, the Trump Administration announced that it had ordered Sable Offshore to restart oil production, including the use of those shuttered onshore pipelines, in Santa Barbara County regardless of any outstanding legal or safety claims.
The Department of Energy issued the order to restart production under the authority of the Defense Production Act of 1950 and delegated to the Energy Secretary by Executive Order 13603 "National Defense Resources Preparedness".
"The Trump Administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first," stated Secretary Wright Friday. "Unfortunately, some state leaders have not adhered to those same principles, with potentially disastrous consequences not just for their residents, but also our national security. Today's order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness."
The Trump Administration's order to restart did not explicitly direct crude oil from the Santa Ynez Unit for exclusive military uses nor limit its destination to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve.
"Sable is proud to announce oil sales through the Santa Ynez Pipeline System to Chevron," stated Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores in Monday's press release. "In doing so, we are providing American oil from American soil through an American pipeline to an American refinery for American consumers and the United States military."
Despite numerous requests for more information about the destination of crude oil from the Santa Ynez Unit with both Sable Offshore and the Department of Energy, no response was received until Monday's announcement.
Instead, on Wednesday of last week, Your News Channel author received an email from a Department of Energy spokesperson in response to questions about the restart of local oil production that stated:
"Despite being home to more than 30 military installations, California has adopted policies that have left our forces—and $4.1 trillion of our Nation’s GDP—dependent on imported oil. This is an untenable threat to our national security, especially in a time of military conflict.
Instead of correcting these self-inflicted vulnerabilities, California leaders are attempting to block the Secretary’s efforts to restart critical infrastructure and strengthen domestic energy production. California leaders should stop prioritizing political agendas over America’s energy security."
The Department of Energy has not responded to Your News Channel's request for clarification of the national security designation targeting California nor has it responded to multiple requests for details on the forced restart.
The state of California, its elected leaders, nor voters who participated in the proposition process have been officially designated under federal law as a national security threat and local military installations confirmed with Your News Channel last week that military personnel have not been tasked with taking corrective or enforcement actions regarding the restart of oil production locally.
The official statement from the U.S. Department of Energy Wednesday designating California as a national security threat is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests with both the federal energy agency and the Department of Defense.
The fact that Chevron is buying oil from the Santa Ynez Unit has a substantial impact outside of the claims made by supporters of its restart.
Court documents show that Sable initially secured a $622,000,000 loan from ExxonMobil to fund the purchase of the Santa Ynez Unit from the oil giant.
The line of credit had a very important condition.
Ownership of the Santa Ynez Unit would revert back to ExxonMobil unless oil from the Santa Ynez Unit under Sable's management enters the market.
A spokesperson on behalf of ExxonMobil declined to comment on the change in ownership indirectly facilitated by the Trump Administration when reached for clarification by Your News Channel.
Your News Channel reached out to Sable Monday to clarify the amount sold to Chevron so far and if there are any unmet conditions securing ownership of the Santa Ynez Unit from ExxonMobil and its response will be added to this article when it is received.
Sable Offshore detailed Monday that Platform Harmony is producing about about 22,000 gross barrels of oil per day and the energy company expects production restart at Platform Heritage on Monday with an expected total rate of over 30,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
Platform Hondo is expected to resume production by the end of the second quarter of this year, producing over 10,000 barrels of oil per day added Sable Offshore.
"[Oil produced in California] is used by the 50 military bases in California, Nevada, and Arizona. And that's the reason why Trump invoked the Defense Production Act," stated Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham weeks ago. "He has to make sure those military bases and those sailors and airmen and so forth have fuel for their jets and their boats and so on."
No indication has been made publicly that any amount of oil is being directed for defense-specific uses.
California's Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday of last week challenging the restart order explaining, "Restarting the flow of oil through Lines CA-324/325 does not fix any of these purported problems. Defendants' national defense and national energy emergency justifications are patently unreasoned. To the contrary, the offshore platforms have a maximum expected gross oil rate of 50,000 barrels per day, contributing a fraction of a percent to the domestic energy market. Although international conflict has driven up oil prices globally by reducing oil exports from the Middle East, there is no actual shortage of crude oil in the United States; the incremental oil production the Wright Order directs would thus neither address a shortage (because there is none) nor lower the cost of crude oil in the United States (because this miniscule incremental production would not have an impact on the global price of oil). And even if there were any marginal benefit to the "national defense," it would be vastly outweighed by the environmental and safety risks, as well as the unlawful and unconstitutional displacement of the State’s police powers and the intrusion upon the State's sovereign property rights."
After Sable Offshore submitted a Request for Approval of Restart Plans in September of last year to the California Office of State Fire Marshal in accordance with the federal consent decree agreed to by the previous owner of the pipelines, the state safety regulator found that there were still outstanding steps required before approving restart.
Instead of conducting the requested safety actions, Sable Offshore instead informed investors in December of last year that it had determined that pipelines connecting the onshore oil processing plant on the Gaviota Coast to Pentland Station in Kern County are technically interstate pipelines under the Pipeline Safety Act and requested that federal regulators take over its restart plans.
Sable indirectly confirmed in an 8K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early February that it had not made those requested safety steps when it informed investors that it has not made any additional capitol investments into onshore facilities and pipelines and had only spent money on ongoing court proceedings.
Some repair work that was completed last year is subject to civil charges brought by the California Attorney General and criminal charges brought by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office.
"The Wright Order is an affront to, and usurpation of, the traditional police powers delegated to the states, in that it seeks to override any and all California laws that stand in the way of the restart of the Pipelines. The Wright Order also tramples over California’s property rights to the extent it purports to allow Sable to operate Line CA-325 through a state park without an easement—or the safety and environmental conditions the Department of Parks and Recreation previously imposed under a now-expired easement—and to operate the Offshore Pipeline through leases from the California State Lands Commission without abiding by lease terms, including those mandating compliance with all other state
laws."
"We just want them to follow the law," argued Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores during last week's interview on Fox News. "But that doesn't happen in California. You have to defend yourself. And the aspect is, the more of this going on is running so many people out of the state. And we're one of the few people investing in the state and trying to help it."
The Trump Administration's forced restart and facilitation of a change in ownership at the Santa Ynez Unit was noted in Attorney General Bonta's lawsuit last week.
"Sable was and remains undercapitalized. As a condition of the acquisition, if Sable did not restart production by January 1, 2026, ExxonMobil had the right of reversion," stated the state's lawsuit. "Sable’s precarious financial position dictated that it prioritize restarting the pipelines quickly, above all else. Shortly after the acquisition, Sable began its venture to restart oil production at the Santa Ynez Unit, transport crude oil through Lines CA-324/325, and sell the oil commercially. In order to do so Sable ultimately opted to repair instead of replace the pipelines.
"Defendants' [U.S. Department of Energy] unprecedented act of government assistance to a single struggling oil company endangers the health and safety of California's residents and the environment," added the lawsuit.
"The pipeline operator then relied on the [U.S. Secretary of Energy] Wright Order, and a contemporaneous opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, to argue that any state laws or existing court orders standing in the way of restart could be ignored and set aside," detailed Monday's lawsuit. "The very next day, on March 14, 2026, the pipeline operator restarted pumping oil through pipelines despite an outstanding preliminary injunction in state court, despite not having necessary permits from either the state or the federal government for pipeline operation, despite still not having approval from several state agencies, and despite not having a current or valid easement to keep or utilize the segment of its pipeline crossing California state property."
