NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A California judge on

Tuesday sided with the state government and tentatively ruled

against Houston-based oil company Sable Offshore's ( SOC )

request to restart a pipeline that pulls crude from the Santa

Ynez offshore oil project.

The tentative ruling from Judge Thomas Anderle in the

Superior Court for Santa Barbara County marks a major setback

for Sable, whose business is entirely focused on the Santa Ynez

project. Its shares fell over 20% to about $14 each in extended

trading.

The company in May restarted production from one of the

three offshore platforms in that project, nearly a decade after

it was shut due to an oil spill under previous owner Exxon Mobil ( XOM )

.

Sable also repaired the Las Flores subsea pipeline that

pulls crude from the offshore platform, in the hopes of selling

the oil to refiners in the state, but the California Coastal

Commission blocked its restart citing issues with Sable's

permits.

Sable petitioned the Santa Barbara Superior Court and argued

the Coastal Commission did not have the authority to issue the

cease and desist order. However, the company failed to meet its

burden to prove the commission had abused its discretion,

Anderle wrote in his tentative ruling.

Anderle will hold a hearing on Wednesday before finalizing

the decision.

Meanwhile, Sable is expected to change strategies for

marketing the crude oil from the Santa Ynez platform. The

company last week said delays in the restart of the Las Flores

pipeline system will make it fully pivot to using tankers to

shuttle crude from Santa Ynez instead of the pipeline.

Sable has sought support from the federal government for the

tanker pathway and last week submitted an updated development

and production plan for Santa Ynez detailing that route to the

U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy

Management, the company said in its filing.