EOTT Energy recovered dozens of boxes of documents Friday that were buried 45 feet deep at the site of an old oil spill near Hobbs, N.M.

The papers are likely the missing operational documents for a nearby pipeline that the Houston company bought, including records related to other oil spills.

The company had unearthed 67 boxes by noon Friday and had as many as 30 more to go.

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EOTT began digging for the documents two weeks ago when an ex-employee for the pipeline's former owner said missing records had been buried at the site. New Mexico State Land Office officials halted the excavation last week, saying EOTT didn't have permission, even though it had a pipeline right-of-way and grazing rights to the land.

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EOTT said a number of documents were missing when it purchased the pipeline in 1999 from Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Co.

The papers could include records of oil spill remediation efforts, soil contamination reports, groundwater level studies and other documents relating to the day-to-day operation of the pipeline.