Sable Offshore Restarts Oil Production Off California Coast

Sable Offshore, a Texas-based oil company, has restarted oil output from a platform off the coast of California, where production has been offline for a decade. Two more platforms are left to be brought back online.

Sable Offshore, as the owner of a pipeline that will transport hydrocarbons produced at three offshore platforms linked to it, has resumed production at the Santa Ynez Unit’s first of three platforms, where production was shut down in May 2015, when a corroded onshore pipeline ruptured and released around 450,000 gallons (1,703.44 cubic meters) of oil near Refugio State Beach north of Santa Barbara.

On May 15, 2025, the U.S. company initiated the flow of oil production from six wells on the Harmony platform of the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) to Las Flores Canyon (LFC) at a rate of around 6,000 barrels of oil per day. Before this, the firm tested wells on the platform throughout May 2025, which performed consistently stronger than at the shut-in on May 19, 2015, when the SYU produced approximately 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Furthermore, about 30% of the 32 producing wells at the platform have been tested as of May 18, 2025, with the remaining wells projected to be tested over the next several days. Sable expects to initiate production from the additional 44 wells on the Heritage platform and the additional 26 wells on the Hondo platform in July 2025 and August 2025, respectively.

Jim Flores, Sable’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “SOC is proud to have safely and responsibly achieved first production at the Santa Ynez Unit. The impressive well tests from platform Harmony confirm the prolific nature of the Santa Ynez Unit reservoir after being dormant for ten years. SOC is excited about our development plan and prospects for the future.

“This milestone achievement is a result of a tremendous amount of effort from all of Sable’s employees, contractors, Board of Directors, stakeholders, and suppliers. We are very grateful for the cooperation and partnership from our local community and regulatory bodies as we seek to provide energy security to the State of California.”

According to the Texas-based player, the oil flow to Las Flores Canyon follows the completion of the Gaviota State Park anomaly repairs on the Las Flores Pipeline System on May 18, 2025, which wrapped up the company’s anomaly repair program on the onshore pipeline.

With seven of the eight sections of the pipeline hydrotested, Sable will complete the last hydrotest to meet the final operational condition to restart the onshore pipeline, expecting to fill approximately 540,000 barrels of crude oil storage capacity at LFC by the middle of June 2025 and subsequently recommence oil sales in July 2025.

The oil production restart comes weeks after the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in Federal District Court in Los Angeles over the so-called federal failure to require updated development and production plans for the Santa Ynez Unit.

Since the Trump administration repeatedly promised to “drill, baby, drill,” President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office to revoke former President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of certain ocean areas from future oil-and-gas leasing. Several groups are part of a lawsuit challenging that order.

California, which has three remaining oil platforms in operation off the coast of Orange County – Eva, Emmy, and Ester – constructed between 1963 and 1985, is setting the stage to reach net-zero carbon emissions and 100% clean electricity by 2045.