Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has overseen the swift reactivation of a long-dormant Pacific oil reserve, completing the process in just five months despite opposition from California lawmakers and extensive regulatory hurdles. The Santa Ynez Unit, which contains an estimated 190 million barrels of recoverable oil, had been offline since a 2015 pipeline rupture.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), part of the Interior Department, announced Friday that operations have resumed at the site. The restart was made possible after Houston-based Sable Energy acquired the location from ExxonMobil in 2024 and worked with the Trump administration to reactivate several offshore platforms.
“The Trump administration is restoring energy independence and unleashing the full potential of American offshore resources like never before,” a spokesperson for the Interior Department told Fox News Digital.”Under the leadership of Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior has taken decisive action to cut through red tape and streamline permitting processes that had stalled the development of Sable’s offshore energy resources for years.”
The Santa Ynez Unit was shut down in 2015 following a pipeline failure that released roughly 2,900 barrels of oil, about 500 of which flowed into the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
BSEE Deputy Director Kenneth Stevens said the decision aligns with President Donald Trump’s commitment to using domestic energy sources. “That’s what ‘energy dominance’ looks like: results, not delays,” he said, noting that three platforms are expected to be operational by the end of the year. The agency characterized the development as a significant turnaround, moving from no oil production in the Pacific for a decade to near-full capacity in just a few months.
Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Salud Carbajal of California have been vocal in their opposition. In a March letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, they warned against resuming offshore drilling in the region, pointing to California’s vulnerability to environmental disasters.
“In addition, we face threats from the Trump administration to expand oil drilling everywhere, including offshore California, and to gut federal policies and agencies that protect our environment and tackle the ongoing climate crisis,” they wrote. “As we know all too well, fossil fuel-driven climate change is severely impacting California and setting the stage for unprecedented disasters like the one we just experienced in Los Angeles. The economic, environmental, and human costs in our state are immeasurable.”
A source familiar with the process confirmed that the Interior Department had to contend with significant regulatory barriers, including permitting and environmental approvals from Sacramento. Schiff and Carbajal raised concerns about the risks of using “corrosion-prone” infrastructure and referenced the Refugio oil spill as a cautionary example. They also praised Governor Newsom for opposing federal offshore oil leasing.
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