Three offshore oil rigs in Southern California are coming back online, a decade after a corroded pipeline carrying oil from the platforms ruptured and spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil.
Sable Offshore — which bought the rigs from Exxon Mobil — began producing oil from one of the platforms, known as Harmony, in May. Two other platforms, Heritage and Hondo, are scheduled to become operational in October and by the end of the year, respectively.
The Trump administration is touting the moves as a win for American energy independence, even as state regulators pursue fines and cease-and-desist orders against Sable for making repairs to a related onshore pipeline without needed permits.
Kenny Stevens, principal deputy director at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, called the restart of Platform Harmony a “comeback story for Pacific production.”
