The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) granted Sable Offshore Corp. a 10-year special permit for an alternative integrity management program for approximately 124 miles of the Santa Ynez Pipeline System. PHMSA stated that the permit satisfies the requirements of the federal consent decree entered after the 2015 pipeline rupture while maintaining an equivalent or higher level of pipeline safety.
The special permit, issued June 25, 2026, exempts Sable from the requirement for operators of hazardous liquid pipelines to remediate specified longitudinal seam weld corrosion within 180 days of discovery. The special permit covers Lines CA-324 and CA-325, including associated segments CA-325A and CA-325B, which transport crude oil from the Las Flores Canyon processing facility in Santa Barbara County to the Pentland terminal in Kern County.
Rather than requiring automatic repairs within 180 days, the alternative integrity management program imposes several conditions, including more frequent in-line inspection runs; enhanced corrosion monitoring and integrity assessments; hydrostatic pressure testing; annual crack detection inspections; independent third-party technical reviews; annual reports; and mandatory repair criteria and operational restrictions.
PHMSA concluded that these conditions adequately mitigate the risks associated with longitudinal seam weld corrosion while allowing the pipeline to operate under a more tailored integrity management program.
PHMSA Jurisdiction
The 10-year special permit comes after several months of Sable lobbying. In November 2025, Sable requested that the federal government take regulatory oversight of the pipeline system critical, taking authority from the California Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM). In December 2025, PHMSA agreed with Sable’s jurisdictional determination and assumed regulatory oversight of the pipeline.
The PHMSA then approved the pipeline restart plan on December 22, 2025 and soon after issued order granting an “emergency special permit” until February 21, 2026, waiving the requirement to “evaluate and remediate corrosion occurring at longitudinal seam welds within 180 days.”
Sable applied for a long-term special permit on January 22, 2026; PHMSA published the application for public comment in February and later extended the comment period to allow additional public review following developments related to the pipeline before issuing the 20-year special permit in June.