Satire: Oil prices skyrocket

Houston, TX (AP)

Oil prices rose dramatically in early trading after supplies were disrupted at a Valero station in east Piney Flats, TN.

The event took place around 11:30 am EDT when Ida Lou Farber of Chuckey, TN was pumping gas into her 1991 Chevrolet Blazer. A faulty overflow valve on the fuel nozzle caused Farber, who had turned her back to dispose of some trash, to pump nearly one quarter of a gallon onto the concrete.

"I should have been more careful," Farber said, "but the Pal's hot dog wrapper I had tossed in the back seat was starting to smell. By the time I threw it away it was too late and the gas had started to spill."

The reaction was immediate in oil markets throughout the world.

In London, benchmark Brent Crude rose nearly $2 to $69.54. U.S. crude increased slightly less than $1.50 to $67.32. Oil prices have risen nearly $20 from its year low in January.

"Supplies are running very tight," said Leroy Parnell Johnson, an analyst with Goldman Stears. "With Nigerian elections over and tensions appearing to calm in Iran, even the slightest disruption is needed to prevent prices from dropping to normal levels.

"Today, Ms. Farber gave us that disruption."

With gasoline demand steadily on the rise in the face of unusually high gasoline prices, even the slightest waste stands to send the market on a steep climb.

Oil had been trading down 14 cents before the incident in Piney Flats. They had risen slightly earlier in the session on fears that a Ford Explorer driven by John Wayne Robinson of Salina, KS might have a leaky fuel line.