Red Sea - (Disaster Mess): Dreams of riches and glory for Texas hydrocarbons midget Zion Oil suffered yet another major blow today as the company's prospecting drills were smashed to smithereens following the eruption of the Al Tair Island volcano in the Red Sea.
The company's share price plunged to 25c before rallying slightly and settling to around 26c as reports continued of the entire island being "aglow with lava and magma" .
Zion Oil rose to prominence in 2000 as its Texan founder John Brown claimed "The Lord" had helped him decipher Biblical encodings revealing where "Jahweh hid the oil from the heathens" in Ancient Israel.
Seven years on and Brown's backers have seen their investments plunge by over 99%.
So today's volcanic activity on Al Tair Island may stretch Brown's credibility to its extremes.
Lava and volcanic ash has been seen spewing hundreds of feet into the air and the smoky trail of destruction has been reported as clearly visible from outer space by the crew of the International Space Station.
Geologists say Brown was warned years ago that al-Tair lies on a major seismic fault line which last saw a major eruption in the late 19th Century.