WASHINGTON – A key oil-producing region in the Pacific, known as the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU), has remained shut-in from production since 2015 after an oil spill. Approximately 190 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves are estimated to remain within this area, which accounts for nearly 80% of residual Pacific reserves and about 3% of the total production potential for the U.S.
In February 2024, ExxonMobil completed the sale of the SYU assets, including the onshore Las Flores Canyon Facility and the Pacific Pipeline Company Lines CA-324 and CA-325 (formerly Lines 901 and 903), to Sable Offshore Corp (Sable). The SYU assets include the operations of the three platforms, Harmony, Heritage, and Hondo. As the Trump-Vance Administration focuses on securing Energy Dominance and Unleashing American Energy through increased critical domestic oil production, Sable announced the restart of production at SYU—a move that could generate up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day per platform.
This is a significant achievement for the Interior Department and aligns with the Administration's Energy Dominance initiative, as it successfully resumed production in just five months.
With production now underway at Sable's Platform Harmony, the Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) continues to work with Sable to bring additional production online. Preproduction inspections for Platform Heritage are set to begin soon and will mark the second SYU platform to come online, targeting an October 2025 timeframe. This could introduce approximately an additional 10,000 barrels/day into production once the second platform is fully operational.
"President Trump made it clear that American energy should come from American resources," said BSEE Principal Deputy Director Kenneth Stevens. "Thanks to his leadership and Secretary Burgum's commitment, we've turned a decade-long shutdown into a comeback story for Pacific production. In just months, BSEE helped bring oil back online safely and efficiently—right in our own backyard. That's what Energy Dominance looks like: results, not delays."
Interior anticipates all three platforms in the SYU to be online by the end of 2025, bringing a very successful completion to what has been 10 years of no oil production in the Pacific to essentially full production in just a matter of months, which is an excellent testament to President Trump and Secretary Burgum's drive towards Unleashing American Energy.
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The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is the lead federal agency charged with improving safety and ensuring environmental protection related to the offshore energy industry on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.