Santa Barbara Court Refuses to Lift Injunction, Blocking Sable from Immediate Pipeline Restart

Sable Offshore Corp. hit a fresh legal hurdle from a Santa Barbara County court, which upheld the restrictions on restarting the Las Flores pipelines. 

A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge on April 17, 2026, refused to lift the existing injuction that bans the restart of the oil pipelines off the Santa Barbara coast until all required approvals are met. 

Once Sable obtains all the mandatory permits, it will be required to provide a formal notice of its intent to restart operations and will have to wait 10 court days before restarting oil production from the controversial pipelines. 

Notably, Sable has already restarted offshore oil operations from the Santa Ynez Pipeline System and initiated oil sales on March 29, 2026. The oil production marked the first time crude was commercially sold since operations were halted in May 2015 following the Refugio oil spill. 

While the court allowed Sable to move ahead with some procedural steps, it rejected the Houston-based oil and gas company’s efforts to challenge the expert testimony submitted by the petitioners. 

Upholding the preliminary restraining order, Judge Donna D. Geck reinforced the pause on the pipeline’s oil production. 

Sable acquired the onshore pipeline system, the onshore processing and treatment facilities, the offshore pipelines, and three offshore platforms known as the Santa Ynez Unit. 

On March 16, 2026, Sable announced that it had started moving oil through the pipeline system under a federal directive issued by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, the same day California regulators denied the company a crucial easement and ordered it to remove a portion of the pipeline that runs through the Gaviota State Park. 

Clash Between State and Federal Authorities

Sable’s restart on oil operations has become a flashpoint in a broader conflict between state authorities and the federal energy policy. 

Characterizing the court’s ruling as a “rebuke of the Trump administration and Sable’s ploy to illegally use emergency powers to bypass California law,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that despite the restart of production, gas prices were still high. 

Sable had assured the public that the project would offer Californians “immediate relief” by making gas prices cheaper, he said. 

The past week marked one month since the Trump administration “illegally invoked emergency powers” to restart the pipelines, Newsom said. However, Americans are paying “a growing $10 billion more at the pump than before Trump’s reckless war began.” 

Citing a Bloomberg report, the California governor said oil from Sable’s pipeline was a “drop in the bucket,” accounting for merely 0.05% of total oil production. 

A 2020 federal court order barred the restart of the pipeline since the 2015 Refugio oil spill, while mandating the pipeline operator to pay over $60 million for damages to California’s natural resources and penalties, and to reimburse agencies for the cost of cleaning up the coast, Governor Newsom said. 

“Sable Not Above the Law”

The preliminary injunction was still effective despite Sable getting the federal order issued under the Defense Production Act, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. The federal order does not relieve Sable of its requirements to get all the permits and approvals from California regulators and notify the court. 

“This preliminary injunction is another reminder that Sable is not above the law,” said Mati Waiya, executive director for the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation.

Calling Sable’s actions to resume oil production “rash,” Waiya said that the restart of oil production was a “serious threat” to Chumash lifeways, their sacred sites, and the communities. 

California filed a federal lawsuit in March 2026 seeking to block the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) order that approved the restart of two onshore oil pipelines without state approvals. The lawsuit argued that the DOE’s action violates the Administrative Procedure Act, intrudes on California’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment, and breaches separation-of-powers principles by trying to override state law, the Santa Barbara County Superior Court preliminary injunction, and a federal court-approved consent decree on the restart of the onshore lines. 

In June 2025, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Foundation filed a preliminary injunction request after Sable announced that it had restarted oil production from one of the three offshore platforms and was storing oil in onshore tanks. 

The Environmental Defense Center filed a similar lawsuit and request for relief on behalf of several organizations. The two cases have now been consolidated, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.