News providers would call it a bad knock-on-wood moment, but metro residents sick of grimacing at the gas pump might've savored a fleeting taste of irony, recently, when a Tulsa TV station's reportedly erroneous Web story caused oil prices to jump briefly worldwide.
According to a Reuters report, "Web site error rocks global oil markets," which ran everywhere from Boston to Great Britain to Sabah, Turkey, Tulsa's CBS affiliate, KOTV Channel 6, posted a story on its site about a lightning strike causing a fire at an Oklahoma refinery, "sparking a flurry of excitement among energy traders."
U.S. crude prices rose 40 cents, as a result, and KOTV pulled the story after the refiner labeled it "completely wrong," Reuters reported. CFN is unsure what part of the story was incorrect " aspects of the fire itself, or something else, and Reuters didn't clarify. Regardless, perhaps an unnamed Houston-based oil trader put it best:
"All it takes is a screwup on a Web site to move the market. It just goes to show how tense this market is."
CFN intern Bucky would like to fill up on the day someone mistakenly reports massive oil reserves have been found under LakeHefner "¦ but don't expect him to write that story.
