US directs Sable Offshore to restore Santa Ynez oil unit

The US Government on Friday directed Sable Offshore to restore oil drilling operations off the southern California coast, the US Energy Department said.

The move aims to restart oil production at a cluster of offshore platforms as fuel prices continue to rise in the wake of the war on Iran. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to let the secretary of energy take actions under the Defense Production Act.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told Sable to restart work at the Santa Ynez unit and Santa Ynez pipeline, “to address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and US military forces dependent on foreign oil,” the Energy Department said in a statement.

Sable Offshore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Santa Ynez unit and Santa Ynez pipeline system have been points of contention in California. The Santa Ynez offshore platforms were shut down in 2015 after an oil spill, but the company has since restarted production at one of them.

A state judge last year ruled against the Houston, Texas-based company’s request to lift a cease and desist order on repairs it had made to an onshore pipeline system.

In January, the California attorney general said the state was suing the Trump administration for asserting federal authority over two state pipelines and permitting Sable to restart pumping oil through them.

The Energy Department said Sable’s facility could produce approximately 50,000 barrels of oil per day.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, Writing by Christian Martinez; Editing by Chris Reese, Sergio Non and Diane Craft)

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