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More oil production to restart offshore of Santa Barbara County

July 30, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Months after offshore oil production resumed at one platform off the Santa Barbara County coastline, plans are in the works to start production at two additional offshore facilities.

Sable Offshore plans to restart oil production at all three of its Central Coast offshore facilities by the end of 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s energy dominance initiative. The goal of the initiative is to achieve United States energy independence and lower energy prices by expanding production and exports.

On July 25, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that Sable is working to restart production at Platform Heritage by October, which will put two platforms in production.

In 2015, a pipe owned by Plains All American Pipeline ruptured near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, causing more than 100,000 gallons of oil to spill. About 21,000 gallons flowed into a culvert and then into a ditch that drains into the ocean.

The spill spread over 9 miles of mostly sandy beaches. The spill led to the closure of the three offshore drilling platforms and the pipeline, which are now owned by Sable.

In May, Sable resumed oil production in federal waters offshore of Santa Barbara County. It started extracting oil from one of three platforms that had been closed since the 2015 spill.

The resumption of offshore oil production began just a month after the California Coastal Commission fined Sable $18 million and ordered a halt to their work for not obtaining necessary permits. The company disputes the Coastal Commission’s finding, arguing it has all the required permits for its operations.

Environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, have criticized the offshore oil production restart, citing risks to sensitive habits and species. Local residents have expressed opposition to the timing of the restart coinciding with 10th anniversary of the Refugio oil spill.

On July 23, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge issued a partial preliminary injunction ordering Sable to inform the court after it receives all necessary permits to begin operations of the Santa Ynez pipeline. Sable is then required to wait 10 days before it can utilize the pipeline, during which opponents can appeal the decision to the court.

 


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Finally some good news.


0

While there is nothing good for the environment or the climate that can come of this, if we are going to stall the transition to clean energy, as the Trump admin is currently doing, I’m all for increased oil production if it lowers gas prices. I think it’s probably too late for us to prevent the very worst outcomes of climate change anyway so there’s really no point in pretending we are even trying. I say, drill, baby, drill, and let my grandkids deal with the consequences.


0

Drill baby Drill…


0

20 to 25 TONS of oil naturally seep up from the bottom of the Santa Barbara channel—EVERY DAY, RIGHT NOW. And that’s despite oil being pumped out to relieve the pressure.


Shut off the rigs, and say goodbye to the clean and family friendly beaches, from Jalama to Ventura. The seeped oil will go back to the 70-85 tons of oil emitted daily, as it was first discovered and recorded in 1792, by Captain Cook.


I suppose I should mention the gasses also emitted; propane, methane, ethane, etc. Also, MORE hydrocarbons are released, than ALL the cars and trucks in SB County, EVERY day.


When anti-oil people start ranting ignorantly about “big oil” destroying Santa Barbara, they too, are emitting noxious gasses.


1

Newsolini should be thrilled. If he just had a refinery to send the oil to.


20

Offshore oil is back on California’s Central Coast — and it’s the smart move.


Sable Offshore is restarting production from existing platforms to boost U.S. energy independence and help lower prices. After years of shutdowns, it’s time to use what we already have — responsibly.


Reminder: Electric vehicles aren’t spotless. EV battery production requires mining rare metals like lithium and cobalt, often harming ecosystems and communities abroad. And many EVs still run on electricity from fossil fuels.


✅ Domestic oil, under tough U.S. regulations, is a cleaner, safer choice than importing from countries with weaker standards.


Let’s keep energy affordable, secure, and realistic — with a balanced approach that includes American oil. ️


#EnergyIndependence #OffshoreOil #CaliforniaEnergy #EVReality #SmartEnergy #SableOffshore


35

Let’s not. Let’s finally make the break and develop the tech that doesn’t catch fire or require rare metals or have any other way to monetize our consumption or destroy our environment. I watched oil destroy the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf coast, which was once the most pristine and biodiverse place on the planet. There are literally thousands of platforms off that coast and they all leak. Evey one of them. In the bayou country, they used to dump the sludge they didn’t want to bother to refine into giant pools that had no lining whatsoever and let it seep directly into the very shallow water table. Flared oil incessantly into the air from hundreds of points. What was done was unconscionable. I don’t sense that the attitude has shifted one bit.


I personally think the propulsion system that would be a winner would be hydrogen on the fly, which we would have had decades ago had we invested even a fraction of the money we subsidize oil with every year in perpetuity. At the very least, we should nationalize the extraction of resources, so that blood sucking middlemen can’t create an eternal sorrce of revenue that only ends when they completely deplete the planet.


2

I am always surprised when people insist that drilling for oil is the “cheapest” way to less expensive energy. It is devastating our environment. The cost of that alone is staggering. Not to mention that even though California has allowed an immense amount of extraction, they still charge us the most ridiculous rates at the pump.


The idea that we have to be connected to some entity that is “capitalizing” on us when we could be generating our own power seems like a gigantic scam to me. If we all had our own solar panels, well, there would be a real limit to how much they could “monetize” our consumption. That would seem like the real freedom to me. I deeply resent being a hapless money pump for monopolies and their CEOs making obscene amounts of money from a captive audience, at the added expense of our shared environment.


I look forward to a representative that is willing to help us free ourselves from usurious monopolies like power companies, that at the least, should be publicly owned, to cut out the sociopathic parasites that that allow us to be drained dry for their own profit.


-26

Solar panels grow on trees? Definitely will need a battery for night use, where do those come from? Where do they go when they die? What happens if they catch on fire?


21

All good, important questions. But they do have answers, and we are finding better ones all the time. Solar panels don’t catch fire and a lot of the newer battery tech does not either. Science moves forward. Or are you one of those guys who “doesn’t trust science” as you talk on a cell phone and pick fights on a computer? Spend a few minutes researching some of the cutting edge tech and liberate yourself from the actual “deep state”, the corporate monopolies who are treating us like puppets. You might even be able to learn where solar panels come from.


1

Never mind the dead batteries in Montecito traffic, the electric tow-trucks were in their charging booths for re-deployment. Just thinning out loud.


10

I’m not getting it, Jorge.


1