More spills have been found in a Colorado oil field swamped by floodwaters and regulators caution that more oil releases are likely to be found in coming days.
The latest spills include 9000 litres of oil spilled from a group of storage tanks, more than 12,000 litres from an oil tank that floated away and at least two others from damaged storage tanks involving unknown volumes.
That brings the known volume of oil released since massive flooding began last week along Colorado's Front Range to at least an estimated 83,000 litres. That's about 525 barrels.
Clean-up efforts remain stalled due to high waters and most of the oil releases reported to date came from storage tanks or tank farms operated by Anadarko Petroleum.
The Texas company is just one of many working in northern Colorado's booming Wattenberg oil field, raising the prospect that other companies have suffered similar problems since flooding began last week but have not yet been able to assess their damages.
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An aerial survey of the flood area on Thursday revealed up to two dozen overturned oil storage tanks, said officials with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Releases from those tanks could not be immediately confirmed.
Also unknown yet is whether any pipelines have leaked.
With many roads in the area washed out, the spill sites remained largely inaccessible, preventing clean-up work from getting underway until water levels drop, said Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen.
"We've got a couple of amphibious vehicles and flat-bottom boats that we're using, but really until things have a chance to dry out and some of the infrastructure issues are sorted out, it's going to be difficult," Christiansen said.
The company has said it will clean up as much spilled oil as possible.
State officials say much of the oil has been carried at least some distance by floodwaters, meaning recovering it could be difficult or impossible.
