Sable Offshore Corp. (SOC) shares rallied Tuesday after the company secured a crucial green light from federal regulators to restart a pipeline that's been dormant for nearly a decade.

What Happened: The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) officially approved restart plans for the Las Flores Pipeline system on Monday, according to an 8-K filing submitted to the SEC. The pipeline has been caught in legal limbo since a major oil spill back in 2015.

The approval came after PHMSA received several documents from Sable Offshore in early December outlining the restart plans. Dustin Hubbard, the agency's western region director, conducted a field inspection with the company to review process and safety procedures for bringing the pipeline back online. The company provided a contact list and positioning plan agreements as part of the approval process.

The Bigger Picture: This is significant news for a company that's been bleeding money. Sable Offshore has been operating at a loss, missing earnings-per-share expectations in four of the past five quarters and reporting negative earnings in three consecutive quarters most recently.

SOC Price Action: Sable Offshore shares were up 20.92%, trading at $9.18 at the time of publication.