Sable Offshore Corp. is requesting permission from Santa Barbara County to do excavation work in the coastal zone to inspect its oil pipeline.  

In a letter dated Sept. 8, Sable’s attorney asked the county for approval to do exploratory digs to check for issues at seven points along a segment of its Santa Ynez Unit pipeline system.

The pipeline segment that Sable wants to review is CA-324. The pipeline ruptured in 2015, causing the Refugio oil spill, when it was operated by Plains All-American Pipeline.

The pipeline and associated offshore platforms were inactive for years after the spill, but Sable received permission to restart oil and gas production in March. President Donald Trump granted the restart under the Defense Production Act.

As part of its restart, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration requires Sable to regularly check for issues in the pipeline.

Sable is required to do two inspections per year for the first two years of the restart and then once per year after, according to Santa Barbara County.

The company inspects the pipeline using an in-line inspection tool (ILI) to look for anomalies in the system. If the tool finds a possible issue in the line, Sable must do a validation dig.  

“A validation dig involves excavating a portion of the pipeline, removing any insulation or other protective coatings around that portion of the pipeline, and physically inspecting the pipeline to assess the pipeline integrity and confirm the results of the ILI tool run,” the letter to the county stated.

“Sable has identified seven validation digs that it is required to perform in order to comply with federal pipeline safety regulations that are located within the county’s coastal zone.”

Sable is also required by law to complete any repairs it finds during the inspection while the hole is open to avoid having to dig it up again.

A map submitted to the county shows proposed validation digs near the Santa Barbara coastline between Lompoc and Santa Barbara.

Noozhawk reached out to Sable to learn more about the anomalies and its plans for excavation work, but it had not received a response as of Friday afternoon.

Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta, the county’s public information officer, confirmed that the county received the excavation request. She added that the county is still determining its role in approving Sable’s request.

The county is also coordinating with the California Coastal Commission on its next steps. Gerckens Buttitta said the commission was informed on Wednesday after the Board of Supervisors was briefed on the situation.

A spokesperson for the California Coastal Commission told Noozhawk that it is currently assessing the situation.

Sable is reportedly producing and selling oil from wells on at least one of its offshore platforms, and using the CA-324 pipeline to transport the product to out-of-area refineries. In March, the company said it planned to sell 20,000 barrels of oil a day to Chevron.

The Houston-based oil company has repeatedly clashed with the Coastal Commission over unpermitted pipeline work in the coastal zone.

In September 2024, Sable began excavating in the coastal zone without authorization from the commission.

The commission issued cease-and-desist orders, but the company argued that the commission had no authority to stop it because 1980s permits from the county allowed this type of work.

During construction, crews conducted excavation with heavy equipment, widened roads, installed metal plates, installed shutoff valves, and removed, replaced and reinforced parts of the pipeline, according to the commission staff report.

The Coastal Commission fined Sable $18 million in April 2025 for the unauthorized work. A California Court of Appeal later upheld an injunction against Sable and found that the commission was within its rights to issue a cease-and-desist order.

Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center, said the county did not inform the Coastal Commission about the excavation request until Wednesday afternoon at the EDC’s request.

Sable is required by law and a recent court decision to apply to the Coastal Commission for a coastal development permit, according to Krop.

“Just last month, a court ruled that Sable can’t make any repairs to the pipeline in the Coastal Zone without permits from the Coastal Commission,” Krop said.

Critics of the restart, including the EDC, allege Sable does not have the experience to properly manage the pipeline, and that the infrastructure is too old to operate safely.

“According to Sable and the Trump administration, this pipeline was supposed to be totally safe. But just six months after starting, they are already finding so-called anomalies, which are defects that are serious enough that they require excavations and potential repairs,” Krop said.

“The concern in this community is that this pipeline will continue to degrade, increasing the risk of another catastrophic failure every day that it continues to operate.”

The 2015 Refugio oil spill was caused by pipeline external corrosion that the previous operators failed to detect, according to federal investigators.