I can also imagine the reporter getting it right, but then a copy editor looks in a thesaurus for a shorter word that matches "paraffinic". Bingo! "Waxy" is less than half as many letters, half as many syllables, and keeps the paper inside the reading comprehension level of their audience. After all paraffin is wax, right? Right? Duh. They could have used "alkanes" (two syllables for eight), but then only chemists would have known what they meant.