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California AG Bonta: Sable Restart Won't Lower Oil Prices - Balance of Power
Mar 31, 2026 Latest Videos from Bloomberg Radio
The restart of some 50,000 barrels a day of oil production off the coast of California will have have “no impact” on oil prices, the state’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta said.Houston-based oil driller Sable Offshore Corp. has spent years attempting to restart production at a cluster of platforms off the Santa Barbara coast, facing local opposition tied to an onshore pipeline that spilled more than 2,000 barrels of oil onto California beaches when owned by Plains All American Pipeline. Earlier this month, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright instructed Sable to restart the pipeline system under an executive order invoking emergency powers from President Donald Trump, leading to a lawsuit from California AG Rob Bonta.
“The amount of oil that moves through that pipeline is negligible,” Bonta said Tuesday in the interview. “We don’t have a national energy emergency despite the claims of the president.” US President Donald Trump said he’ll only consider a halt to attacks on Iran when the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, sowing further confusion about how long he’s prepared to continue the war.
Iran’s “New Regime President” has asked the US for a ceasefire, Trump said in a social-media post on Wednesday, possibly referring to comments Masoud Pezeshkian made Tuesday that the Islamic Republic has “the necessary will” to end this war — with certain guarantees.
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear,” Trump said. “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion.”
Trump’s comments came a day after he suggested he’s keen to exit the conflict sooner rather than later — regardless of a ceasefire with Iran or a deal to open Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies. “We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this,” he told reporters in the White House. The US leader has vacillated throughout the month-long conflict between threatening a military escalation and saying a deal is imminent. Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported him as saying the US will be out of Iran “pretty quickly.”
Iran ensured Hormuz was closed off to most ships not long after the US and Israel began airstrikes on Feb. 28, and hasn’t offered any terms or timeline for a reopening. The future of the strait will be decided by Iran and Oman, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday, according to the state-run Press TV.
Araghchi said previously his country has been in direct contact with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, but told Al Jazeera that “does not mean that we are in negotiations.”
Hormuz won’t be opened based on the “absurd displays of the American president,” state-run IRIB added, citing a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Meanwhile, Iran fired missiles across the Middle East and Israel and the US kept up their bombardment of the Islamic Republic for a fifth week.
Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all reported attacks overnight and into Wednesday, while QatarEnergy said a fuel oil tanker was struck in Qatari waters. That incident highlighted the ongoing threat to regional shipping and the month-long effective closure of Hormuz, which has choked off key commodities including fertilizer as well as oil and gas. Stocks and bonds surged earlier as investors took Trump’s Tuesday comments as a sign the crisis could be nearing an end. Oil prices briefly fell below $100 a barrel for the first time in more than a week, though later pared declines and remain around 40% higher than before the war began.
Trump had suggested the US has accomplished military goals such as preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon. “We have had a regime change now,” he added, after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior figures. Khamenei was later replaced by his son, Mojtaba.
The war could be over in two or three weeks, Trump said, although he often sets short-term deadlines that are later ignored or replaced. On Monday, he threatened to destroy Iranian energy assets, as well as desalination plants, if a deal isn’t reached to open the Strait of Hormuz.
The restart of some 50,000 barrels a day of oil production off the coast of California will have have “no impact” on oil prices, the state’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta said.Houston-based oil driller Sable Offshore Corp. has spent years attempting to restart production at a cluster of platforms off the Santa Barbara coast, facing local opposition tied to an onshore pipeline that spilled more than 2,000 barrels of oil onto California beaches when owned by Plains All American Pipeline. Earlier this month, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright instructed Sable to restart the pipeline system under an executive order invoking emergency powers from President Donald Trump, leading to a lawsuit from California AG Rob Bonta.
“The amount of oil that moves through that pipeline is negligible,” Bonta said Tuesday in the interview. “We don’t have a national energy emergency despite the claims of the president.” US President Donald Trump said he’ll only consider a halt to attacks on Iran when the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, sowing further confusion about how long he’s prepared to continue the war.
Iran’s “New Regime President” has asked the US for a ceasefire, Trump said in a social-media post on Wednesday, possibly referring to comments Masoud Pezeshkian made Tuesday that the Islamic Republic has “the necessary will” to end this war — with certain guarantees.
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear,” Trump said. “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion.”
Trump’s comments came a day after he suggested he’s keen to exit the conflict sooner rather than later — regardless of a ceasefire with Iran or a deal to open Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies. “We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this,” he told reporters in the White House. The US leader has vacillated throughout the month-long conflict between threatening a military escalation and saying a deal is imminent. Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported him as saying the US will be out of Iran “pretty quickly.”
Iran ensured Hormuz was closed off to most ships not long after the US and Israel began airstrikes on Feb. 28, and hasn’t offered any terms or timeline for a reopening. The future of the strait will be decided by Iran and Oman, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday, according to the state-run Press TV.
Araghchi said previously his country has been in direct contact with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, but told Al Jazeera that “does not mean that we are in negotiations.”
Hormuz won’t be opened based on the “absurd displays of the American president,” state-run IRIB added, citing a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Meanwhile, Iran fired missiles across the Middle East and Israel and the US kept up their bombardment of the Islamic Republic for a fifth week.
Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all reported attacks overnight and into Wednesday, while QatarEnergy said a fuel oil tanker was struck in Qatari waters. That incident highlighted the ongoing threat to regional shipping and the month-long effective closure of Hormuz, which has choked off key commodities including fertilizer as well as oil and gas. Stocks and bonds surged earlier as investors took Trump’s Tuesday comments as a sign the crisis could be nearing an end. Oil prices briefly fell below $100 a barrel for the first time in more than a week, though later pared declines and remain around 40% higher than before the war began.
Trump had suggested the US has accomplished military goals such as preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon. “We have had a regime change now,” he added, after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior figures. Khamenei was later replaced by his son, Mojtaba.
The war could be over in two or three weeks, Trump said, although he often sets short-term deadlines that are later ignored or replaced. On Monday, he threatened to destroy Iranian energy assets, as well as desalination plants, if a deal isn’t reached to open the Strait of Hormuz.