Oceana Condemns Reckless Restart of Sable Oil Pipeline in California
Press Release Date: March 18, 2026
Location: Washington
Contact:
Cory Gunkel | email: cgunkel@oceana.org | tel: Cory Gunkel
Sable Offshore Corporation has officially restarted its onshore pipeline which was part of a system that failed from corrosion in 2015, spewing more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil off the Santa Barbara coast. Much of the oil ran across Refugio Beach and into the ocean.
The Refugio oil spill soiled approximately 3,700 acres of habitat, closed fisheries, and killed hundreds of marine mammals and birds. This disaster resulted in an estimated $3.9 million loss in recreational value. Tar balls attributed to the spill eventually reached beaches as far away as Los Angeles County. The pipeline had been idle since the spill, along with three offshore platforms it services.
The area of ocean devastated in the 2015 Refugio oil spill is the same as the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill caused by a blowout on an offshore platform, which gushed more than 3 million gallons of oil into the ocean — a disastrous event that spurred the modern-day environmental movement.
Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon released the following statement in reaction to the pipeline restarting for the first time in more than a decade:
“Sable isn’t just reopening a pipeline; it’s reopening a deep scar caused by one of the worst oil spill disasters in California’s history. The repairs required by the state of California on this decades-old pipeline system haven’t even been completed since the 2015 spill, and now it is already back to threatening California’s coastal economies and communities with a toxic disaster once again.
“This move attempts to blatantly usurp state law and ignore the safeguards California has put in place to prevent history from repeating itself. Worst of all, this poor decision flies in the face of Californian’s voices across the Golden State who are calling for more protections against the impacts of offshore oil drilling. This is part of a larger government push to dangerously bypass environmental laws and expedite expanded drilling, risking catastrophic oil spills and pollution on America’s beloved coasts.”
Background
A poll released by Oceana in July 2024 revealed that two-thirds of American voters (64%) support their elected officials protecting U.S. coastlines from new offshore drilling, with similar support among registered voters in coastal states (66%). The poll also found this support grew among youth voters 18 to 29 years of age (70%).
A 2021 analysis by Oceana found that ending new leasing could prevent more than $720 billion in damage to people, property, and the environment. Oil companies already hold nearly 2,000 leases covering almost 10.5 million acres of ocean — an area eight times larger than Grand Canyon National Park. Despite this, nearly 80% of this ocean acreage remains undrilled.
There are frequent oil spills where offshore drilling happens now. Between 2010 and 2022, more than 7,300 oil spills occurred in federal waters, an average of more than one spill every day.
For more information about Oceana’s campaign to prevent the expansion of offshore drilling in the United States, please click here.
