Floods cause massive oil spills in Colorado, US

Massive oil spills amounting to around 22,000 gallons have so far been surveyed by state regulators in the river waters of Colorado as a result of heavy floods that hit the state last week.

Five spills have been classified as notable and two more have been confirmed in an area which belongs to Anadarko and Bayswater Exploration and Production.

Floods have affected around 20,500 operating wells in Weld County, 300 in Boulder County, 250 in Larimer County and 100 in Broomfield County, according to officials. Out of 51,000 wells operating in Colorado, around 1,900 have been shut down due to the bad weather conditions.

Nearly 600 personnel have already been deployed to inspect and repair the damaged well sites. Some oil and gas sites, which are still in deep floodwater, are yet to be inspected by regulators.

Anadarko Petroleum announced that 323 barrels or around 13,500 gallons have spilled from an oil and gas tank farm near Platteville.

Additionally, 125 barrels or around 5,225 gallons have spilled from a damaged storage tank near Milliken and have flowed into the South Platte River.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) said in a statement that the spills are not an unexpected part of many other sources of contamination associated with the floods.

"Those include very large volumes (millions of gallons) of raw, municipal sewage and other hazards associated with households, agriculture, business and industry," the COGCC added.

The producing wells in Colorado flowed around 135,000 barrels of oil per day in 2012 and 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2011.