In a dramatic move amid a legal battle between California and the Trump administration, oil giant Chevron will begin purchasing oil from Sable Offshore Corp., the Houston-based company announced Tuesday.
The petroleum corporation plans to purchase an initial 20,000 barrels of oil per day from offshore platforms near Santa Barbara, just weeks after the federal government approved the restart of production, Bloomberg reported.
The move is a boost for Sable, which has faced strong environmental opposition to resuming operations in California waters.
“We’re going to run Sable’s crude at El Segundo in April,” Chevron executive Andy Walz told the outlet, adding that the Los Angeles-area refinery — which can process about 269,000 barrels per day — is set to handle the supply.
Sable announced on March 16 that it had restarted production at its Santa Barbara offshore platforms, sending oil through the region’s controversial pipeline for the first time since 2015.
The restart came after Donald Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law that allows the federal government to accelerate production of critical materials, including oil and gas.
That same week, California filed a lawsuit challenging the order, arguing it “illegally asserts exclusive jurisdiction over two California onshore oil pipelines” and prioritizes “donors over our people and communities.”
“California will not stand idly by as the president endangers our beautiful coastline and public health to boost profits for his fossil fuel industry friends,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
The Californian Post has reached out to Bonta’s office and Gavin Newsom for comment on the latest developments.
California consistently has some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation, often more than $2 per gallon above the national average — driven in part by declining in-state production and reliance on imported crude.
Federal officials said Sable’s restart is aimed at addressing “supply disruption risks” that have left parts of California — and even U.S. military operations — more dependent on foreign oil.
Now that Sable has flipped the switch, production could ramp up to between 45,000 and 55,000 barrels per day. While that is a small fraction of the more than 20 million barrels consumed daily nationwide, it represents a meaningful boost for California’s supply.
California’s oil production has been steadily declining for decades, dropping from about 1.1 million barrels per day in 1986 to roughly 246,000 barrels per day as of late 2025 — a roughly 77% plunge as aging oil fields dry up.
“We’re taking American crude oil, putting it in American pipelines, running an American refinery and selling those products to American motorists — and it’s going to be cheaper than importing,” Walz said, adding that “the Sable opportunity is a good thing for America.”
Critics argue policies under Newsom — including a 2023 refinery price-control law — have accelerated refinery closures and increased reliance on imported crude.
The U.S. Oil and Gas Association recently said: “California imports 63% of its crude from foreign countries — despite sitting on at least 1.7 billion barrels of proven reserves.”
This is not the first time Chevron has clashed with Newsom.
Earlier this month, Chevron issued a doomsday warning in a letter to Newsom, saying the state could face major job losses and soaring gas prices under what it called his “misguided” climate policies — particularly proposed changes to the cap-and-trade program, which the company warned could “cripple” remaining refineries and drive up fuel costs.