History
A blank-check company bought ExxonMobil's offshore California oil assets in 2024, but had apparently not restarted production by mid-2026 and relied on repeated fundraising and refinancing.
2021-2022: A blank-check shell finds a target
The company began as Flame Acquisition Corp, a blank-check company: a listed shell that raises money from the public to buy a business later. Its IPO closed on March 1, 2021, selling 28,750,000 units at $10.00 each for $287.5 million. Each unit carried one Class A share and one-half of a warrant, a right to buy another share at $11.50. The money went into a trust account, released only for a business deal or to repay shareholders who chose to redeem. The sponsor and others also bought 7,750,000 private warrants at $1.00 each. No target had been named.
The record is then quiet for more than a year. On November 2, 2022, Flame agreed to merge with Sable Offshore Corp, which had separately agreed to buy ExxonMobil's Santa Ynez Unit for $625 million. The unit is a set of offshore Southern California oil platforms plus the onshore processing plant and pipeline linking them to shore. Part of the price was to be financed by a five-year secured loan from Exxon itself. A preliminary proxy on November 10 began the shareholder-approval process, with initial PIPE investors (private buyers of new shares at $10.00) committing $71.5 million.
2023-2024: Delays, a bigger PIPE and closing
The deal took far longer than planned. In June 2023 Sable and Exxon pushed the closing target to June 30 and cut the minimum cash Sable had to hold to $150 million. Flame and Sable extended their merger outside date to March 1, 2024, and a further Exxon amendment in December 2023 targeted a February 1, 2024 closing, the third reset.
The PIPE grew meanwhile. In December 2023 further subscriptions for 18,045,000 shares ($180.45 million) were signed, and by January 2024 filings stated commitments of $520 million. These included $7 million from Chairman and CEO James C. Flores, $3 million from JCF Capital and $30 million from Victorious Angel Group. Shareholders voted on February 12, 2024, and only 2.47% of public shares were redeemed, leaving about $62.2 million in trust.
The merger closed on February 14, 2024. Flame became Sable Offshore Corp, and the $625 million purchase completed with a $606.25 million, 10% secured term loan from Exxon. At the last minute one investor failed to fund its $125 million commitment. Others, including Flores personally, covered $55 million, so the PIPE closed about $80 million short of target. Shares on issue rose from 13,292,182 at the end of 2023 to 89,310,996 a year later.
2024-2025: Raising money without production
Sable raised money again. In September 2024 it sold about 7.5 million new shares to private investors for about $150 million, completed on September 23. In May 2025 it raised about $283 million in an underwritten stock offering.
By November 2025, almost two years after the purchase, production had still not restarted. Exxon agreed to extend the loan to March 2027, or 90 days after oil first flows, if sooner. In return the rate rose from 10% to 15%, and Sable had to raise at least $225 million of new equity and keep $25 million in cash. On November 25 Sable raised $250 million in a private placement, clearing the bar, and the amendment took effect.
2026: Refinancing the Exxon loan
On June 22, 2026, with the loan still outstanding and production apparently still not restarted, Sable and Exxon extended it by about a month, to July 24, for a $30 million fee. Exxon temporarily waived the minimum-liquidity requirement.
On July 2, 2026, Sable repaid the Exxon loan in full. It issued $345 million of 6.5% convertible notes due 2031, convertible at roughly $4.00 a share, and combined them with a concurrent stock offering and a new Term Loan B. That conversion price sat well below the original $10 SPAC and PIPE price. Shares on issue stood at 191,869,572 in 2026. As of that date the Exxon loan was gone, replaced by new debt and equity, and the beats do not confirm that production had restarted.
Written from the 20 story beats below (2021 to 2 July 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.