There’s a new twist in a company’s efforts to reactivate an oil pipeline which ruptured, and caused a major oil spill in Santa Barbara County in 2015.
Sable Offshore Corporation has been fighting to get the State Fire Marshal’s Office to allow the repaired pipeline to reopen, so it can resume pumping oil from three idle oil platforms off the Santa Barbara County coast. The state agency hasn't issued a final ruling on the restart plan.
But, in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sable said it’s now asking federal regulators to allow the pipeline’s reopening.
The company argues that under the federal Pipeline Safety Act, the pipeline constitutes an interstate pipeline facility. If that were the case, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would have jurisdiction.
Environmental groups have been battling the restart efforts, saying using the decades old infrastructure sets the stage for another spill.
In the same filing, the company said it’s still also pursuing the possibility of using oil tankers to move oil. The filing said the preference is to use a pipeline for what the company called the “safe and responsible” shipment of oil, but is keeping the tanker idea open.
An estimated 140,000 gallons of oil spilled on the coast, and into the ocean during the 2015 accident at Refugio State Beach. At the time, the pipeline was owned by Plains All-American pipeline. It has changed hands twice since the accident, with the original proposal to replace the pipeline modified to the less expensive, and quicker concept of repairing it, and updating its safety systems.
