Sable Offshore, a Texas-headquartered oil and gas company, is set to resume oil production at its third platform off the California coast next month, marking the latest step in the company’s phased effort to bring its offshore operations back online.
Sable claims to have progressed field operations at the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU), the Las Flores Canyon Midstream Processing Facility (LFC), and the Santa Ynez Pipeline System (SYPS) towards steady-state operations, after resuming oil production from the Heritage platform in early April 2026.
An average of approximately 47 wells at the Harmony and Heritage platforms were online in July 2026, producing around 721 gross barrels of oil a day per well. While the firm expects to bring all 77 production wells on these two platforms online during the third quarter of 2026, it anticipates the Hondo platform to come online in September 2026.
The company confirmed that the wireline campaign for perforation additions and producing well optimization at the Harmony platform started in August 2026. Sable elaborates that five completed perforation additions, each forecasted to produce an incremental 600 estimated gross barrels of oil per day, are expected to come online at Hondo along with the restart of the platform in September 2026.
In addition, four more perforation additions at the Hondo platform, projected to produce an incremental estimated 600 gross barrels of oil per day, are planned for completion and to be brought online in early Q4 2026.
The U.S. firm highlighted: “Due to the California regulatory environment, local refineries were not able to plan in advance for SYU first sales and ultimately were forced to displace various imported cargos in the second quarter. As a result, Sable incurred $18.5 million of non-recurring demurrage charges throughout the quarter, recognized in operational expenses.
“The sudden supply influx of Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (Pacific OCS) crude has forced refiners to temporarily limit throughput of Pacific OCS crude and charge quality deducts for sulfur content and other items.”
According to Sable, the Hondo platform is expected to produce lower sulfur content oil, which should bring field-wide sulfur content to normal levels upon planned restart in September 2026.
“Chemical-based solutions are expected to be tested in Q4 2026 that would potentially sweeten SYU crude production and lower sulfur content with full implementation anticipated in 2027,” underlined the U.S. player.
Sable points out that California refineries are expected to adjust their crude oil supply slate starting in September 2026 to begin accepting more Pacific OCS barrels from the SYU and less imported barrels, alleviating the SYU throughput constraint altogether.
The company is also in active negotiations to implement waterborne crude oil marketing solutions from existing marine terminals in the Los Angeles area in the near-term in order to improve marketing optionality.
Jim Flores, Sable’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The Sable team was able to make strong progress in ramping up operations in the second quarter. We are encouraged by the productivity of the wells at the SYU with their higher-than-expected production with minimal to no observable decline.
“Through the various solutions we have identified, we look forward to working with our midstream and downstream partners to maximize the amount of domestic crude oil from the SYU getting to market for the benefit of California consumers and the U.S. Military and its allies globally.”
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