Environmentalists question Sable’s ability to handle an oil pipeline disaster

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Sable Offshore Corporation has the financial ability and insurance coverage it needs to handle any potential future disasters caused by the pipeline that spawned the Refugio Oil Spill in 2015, according to Santa Barbara County staff.

But environmental organizations disagree. 

That disaster cost the pipeline’s then owner/operator, Plains All-American, $870 million in cleanup and remediation, Environmental Defense Center (EDC) Staff Attorney Jeremy Frankel told the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 25. 

“Sable hasn’t demonstrated that it has the financial wherewithal to respond to an oil spill,” Frankel said. “It’s possible, if not likely, that Sable may never restart production.” 

The EDC and other environmental organizations appealed the county Planning Commission’s November decision approving an application to change the owner, operator, and guarantor for the Santa Ynez Unit, POPCO Gas Plant, and Las Flores Pipeline from Exxon-Mobil to Sable. The appellants spoke alongside 122 members of the public on Feb. 25, which pushed the Board of Supervisors’ hearing to conclude after the Sun went to press. 

An ordinance called 25B in the county’s petroleum code enables the county to take part in the permit-transfer process that comes with major petroleum facilities changing hands by reviewing the company’s financial assets, its insurance, and its capabilities. It’s the same process that Exxon-Mobil went through in 2023 to acquire pipeline assets from Plains All-American. 

“This is really the county’s kind of one and only opportunity to hold a public hearing and take public comment,” county Energy, Minerals, and Compliance Division Deputy Director Errin Briggs said. “We’ve looked into Sable’s financial condition as much as we can. … They have a sizeable cash balance.” 

Sable President Caldwell Flores spoke at the hearing, saying the company has more than $400 million in insurance certificates, is “well-capitalized,” and is a publicly traded company worth $3 billion. The New York Stock Exchange values the company at $2.6 billion. 

Briggs said that appellants were asking the county to interpret 25B more broadly than it was written, as a result of the ordinance drafting process that took place in 2001 and 2002, when the it was developed. 

“We don’t want to oversimplify the importance of 25B,” Briggs said. “The tasks involved are fairly straightforward, and 25B as it is now doesn’t require staff or the decision-makers to deep dive into the finances in the way that it may have originally intended to be but never came to be.”

Laura Capps, 2nd District supervisor, asked questions about the role of the county in the whole process, concerned that the county had to rely on federal and state agencies’ assessments about the pipeline’s safety. 

“I have deep concerns about safety; I have deep concerns about financial ability,” she said. 

But 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said he thought it was important to clarify one thing for the day’s discussion: “We do not regulate the pipeline.”

“Correct,” Briggs said. 

This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 9, 2025.