World oil prices jumped briefly on Wednesday after a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the No. 62 U.S. media market -- posted an erroneous story about a refinery fire on its Web site.
At 10:14 EDT (1414 GMT), CBS affiliate KOTV reported that a lightning strike had caused a fire at an Oklahoma refinery -- sparking a flurry of excitement among energy traders and boosting U.S. crude prices 40 cents.
The refining company announced the story was "completely wrong" and the station withdrew the story.
"All it takes is a screw-up on a Web site to move the market. It just goes to show how tense this market is," said a Houston-based oil trader.
MIDEAST.RU web-newsproject issued by the Non-commercial partnership "Mass-media against terrorism and extremism" with information contributon of
Committees on the international affairs of the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Russia's Parlament, the All-Russia's union of industrialists and businessmen, Commercial and industrial chamber of the Russian Federation, Council of the external and defensive policy of the Russian Federation, National civil council on the international affairs, the Russian-Arabian business Council.
The web-project is awarded a State grant delivered under the Russia's president decree № 367-RP dated of June,30 - 2007
E-mail: me-journal@bk.ru
The Web-newspaper is related to "Russia and the outside world" issues with a special focus on the USA and the Greater Middle East countries
(the License of the Ministry of Press № 77-6483).