The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office filed 21 criminal counts against Sable Offshore Corp. this week related to oil and gas pipeline work.
Superior Court documents filed Tuesday show allegations of excavating and discharging material into local creeks and waterways, including Arroyo Quemada and tributaries to Nojoqui Creek.
That work allegedly violated the Fish and Game Code and the Water Code, the District Attorney’s Office says in the complaint.
The 21 counts include five felony charges of knowingly discharging a pollutant into a waterway, and 16 misdemeanors, including allegations of unlawful obstruction of a streambed.
District Attorney John Savrnoch declined to comment on the case Wednesday, saying the complaint is being served to Sable.
He confirmed the alleged violations are related to recent pipeline work, which the complaint says happened during 2024 and 2025.
The criminal case is set for a Nov. 4 hearing in Santa Barbara Superior Court.
Sable, which owns the Santa Ynez Unit of offshore oil platforms, processing facility and transportation pipelines, is attempting to restart operations for the infrastructure that’s been shut down since the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill.
The Texas-based company released a statement in response to the court case Thursday morning calling the allegations “inflammatory and extremely misleading.”
The statement said the excavation work was supervised by Office of the State Fire Marshal personnel. “All of these previously disturbed areas have been or are being remediated in accordance with state and local erosion control mitigation measures,” the company said.
Sable, which took over the assets in 2024, is involved in multiple lawsuits over its work on the pipeline and public agency approvals for the restart.
The California Coastal Commission fined Sable $18 million in May over what it says was unpermitted work along the county’s Gaviota Coast, while Sable claims crews did repair and maintenance work that was covered under existing permits.
The county previously filed criminal charges against Plains All American Pipeline, the former owner of these transportation pipelines, after the Refugio Oil Spill.
A Santa Barbara jury found Plains guilty on most charges, including failing to properly maintain the pipeline, and failing to properly notify emergency-response authorities after the spill.
Plains sold the pipelines to ExxonMobil, which later transferred them, three local offshores platforms, and the Las Flores Canyon processing facility to Sable Offshore Corp.