"We gotta pick up all the oil in those little ponds and pools because the new ducks are coming in for the winter and we don't want to oil them," said Roland Guidry, the state's oil spill coordinator.

Of the 190,000 barrels of oil spilled, about 65,000 barrels had been recovered and 70,000 barrels had dispersed or evaporated, said Capt. Frank Paskewich, the Coast Guard's on-scene coordinator. There are 42 gallons (190 liters) of oil to a barrel.

Some 55,000 barrels must still be mopped up.

"We're fortunate in that the majority of these spills were well-contained. It was basically tank failures which resulted in many of these spills," Paskewich told reporters.

Paskewich could not respond immediately to questions about the cost of cleanup efforts. He said all the oil should be recovered within "multiple weeks."

It appears Hurricane Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana border last Saturday, did not cause major damage.

"Thank God that there's not that many big spills in that area. It's very light compared to here, but we're going to address every one of them," Guidry said.

Oil cleanup will be quicker in western Louisiana because many areas can be reached with land vehicles as opposed to barges and boats.

Of the 55,000 barrels of free-floating oil, 40,000 barrels came from a facility owned by Fort Worth, Texas-based Bass Enterprises Production Co., which has operations in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Colorado.

Paskewich said the tanks at the company's operations southeast of New Orleans near Port Sulphur shifted and ruptured. About 3.8 million gallons (17 million liters) of oil spilled into the protective berm around the tanks, but some escaped into neighboring canals as well.

A company spokesman said the oil would not end up in the Mississippi River because it was in dead-end canals.

"We know where it is, we just gotta get it all up," said Bass spokesman Joe Householder.