Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant said Tuesday that tar balls found on a Galveston beach last week are from the ruptured BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil well.

Tar balls were located July 5 on McFaddin Beach, a stretch of coast east of Bolivar Peninsula. They were the first confirmation that crude oil from the massive BP spill had reached Texas shores.

Last week, new laboratory results had officials backing off claims that many of the tar balls that had recently washed up on Texas shores were from the April 20 oil rig disaster.

The confusion was attributed to contradictory test results from two labs.

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