SOC Stock Jumps Onto Retail Radar After California Court Dismisses Challenge To Pipeline

• Earlier this year, the Trump administration had granted emergency permission to Sable Offshore to restart production of its Santa Barbara County oil pipeline under the Defense Production Act.
• Since operations began, the pipeline has been transporting about 30,000 barrels of oil per day to California and is expected to reach 60,000 barrels per day.
• Retail chatter around SOC stock jumped from ‘normal’ to ‘high’ levels over 24 hours on Stocktwits, with message volume surging by 200% over the past week.

Sable Offshore Corp. (SOC) garnered significant retail attention over the weekend after a federal court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the restart of the company's oil and gas operations at the Santa Ynez Unit in the Santa Barbara Channel.

The company’s shares gained 10% on Friday after the dismissal. Retail chatter around the stock jumped from ‘normal’ to ‘high’ levels over 24 hours, and message volume surged by 200% over the past week, with investors actively discussing further upside in the stock.

Challenge To Sable Pipeline In California Dismissed

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said on Friday that it had dismissed the complaint in Center for Biological Diversity v. Burgum, one of several cases challenging Sable Offshore’s oil and gas operations.

The ruling said that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) decision concluded that Sable was not required to revise its development and production plan under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and could restart its offshore drilling production.

“This decision is a clear-eyed interpretation of federal law in keeping with the Supreme Court’s instruction in Loper Bright to follow the best interpretation of statutes,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Our defense of BOEM’s decision supports domestic energy production in furtherance of President Donald J. Trump’s directive to unleash American energy.”

Earlier this year, the Trump administration had granted emergency permission to the company to restart production of its Santa Barbara County oil pipeline under the Defense Production Act. The pipeline had been shut since 2015 due to a massive oil spill.

Since operations began, the pipeline has reportedly been transporting about 30,000 barrels of oil per day to California and is expected to reach 60,000 barrels per day.

China To Buy US Oil

American oil companies also got a sentiment boost after Trump said that China had agreed to buy crude oil from the U.S. after the recently-concluded U.S.-China bilateral summit in Beijing.

“They have an insatiable appetite for energy, and we have unlimited energy,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News last week, adding that “we’re doing twice as much oil and gas, as they are,” referring to the U.S. producing more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.

SOC Stock: Retail Turns Bullish

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around SOC improved from ‘bullish’ to ‘extremely bullish’ over the past 24 hours as users eyed a potential jump in the stock.

One bullish user said that the company’s stock was “going up.”

The user also noted in a separate comment that, “Now that we’re selling oil to China, there’s absolutely no way the federal government is gonna let any oil project stop or stall, especially on the west coast.”

Another bullish user said, “If the agency continues to hold, $50 is not impossible,” referring to the fact that the project could come under federal control. Shares of the company were trading around $15.10 at the time of writing.

SOC stock has gained nearly 29% so far this year.

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