An oil company is trying a new tactic to restart operations on a pipeline that 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 that using the decades-old infrastructure sets the stage for another spill.
In the same filing, the company stated that it’s still pursuing the possibility of using oil tankers to transport oil. The filing noted that the company prefers to use a pipeline for what it called the “safe and responsible” shipment of oil, but it is keeping the tanker option 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. The company has changed hands twice since the accident. The original proposal to replace the pipeline was modified to the less expensive and quicker plan of repairing it and updating safety systems.
