BEIJING, May 17 (AP) -- Rescuers have identified 15 members of a Chinese oil company surveying team who were killed in a snowstorm on the Qinghai plateau in the country's remote west, the government said Tuesday.

Thirteen other workers were injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The victims were part of a 70-member surveying team working for a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. that was hit by the storm Friday in Qinghai's Haixi prefecture, Xinhua said.

The workers were immediately told to withdraw, but rescuers had trouble reaching them all because their operation sites were scattered and visibility was low, Xinhua said.

On Saturday, 15 workers were found dead, the agency said. All were from Qinghai and the neighboring province of Gansu, it said. Their families had rushed to the scene.

Qinghai abuts Tibet and large sections of the province lie above 3,000 meters (10,000 feet).