Alcohol-induced trading has produced many unintended consequences, but pushing up the global price of oil and losing $10 million must rank among the most novel. Steven Noel Perkins, a former oil futures broker, did just that, Britain's financial regulator disclosed Tuesday. He single-handedly engineered a jump in the price of oil a year ago and cost his firm millions of dollars with a string of unauthorized trades after a weekend of heavy drinking. Perkins had just returned from a drunken golf weekend with colleagues in June of last year when he sat down in front of his laptop at his home east of London and started to place bets on Brent crude futures, according to a report by the Financial Services Authority. He continued to drink and place bets through the night and by the morning of June 30, Perkins had placed more than $520 million worth of trades. At one point, he pushed the price of oil to $73.05, an eight-month high. The trades by Perkins were the main reason the price gained about $1.65 a barrel in just over two hours in the middle of the night, according to the report. 'Mr. Perkins' explanation for his trading on 29 and 30 June is that he was drunk,' the FSA said. 'He claims to have limited recollection of events on Monday and claims to have been in an alcohol-induced blackout at the time he traded.' Just before 7 a.m. Perkins realized what he had done and tried to unwind his positions. To gain time Perkins sent a text message to his boss at PVM Oil Futures saying that a relative was feeling unwell and that he would not be in the office that day. When a back office clerk called Perkins at 7:45 a.m. on June 30 to ask for details about the trades, Perkins lied and said he made them on behalf of a client. PVM takes commissions on fulfilling orders from its clients, which are banks and other institutions, and is not trading for itself. But by 10 a.m., PVM, where Perkins had worked since 1998, had discovered that his trades were unauthorized and suspended his access to the trading system. The trades cost PVM almost $10 million, the company said last year. The FSA fined Perkins about $107,600 for market abuse and banned him from working in the financial services industry for at least five years. The regulator had reduced the fine from about $224,000 to avoid causing Perkins 'serious financial hardship.' Perkins joined a rehabilitation program last year and has now stopped drinking, the FSA said. 