Shares in Canadian Overseas Petroleum (LON:COPL, CVE:XOP) shot up as president and chief executive officer Arthur Milholland boosted his share holding again.
Milholland bought 1.1mln shares at four cents a pop on 17 February, taking his holding up to 12.96mln shares, representing around 2.7% of the issued ordinary share capital of the West Africa-focused oil and gas explorer.
It is the third month in a row that Milholland has stuck his hand in his pocket and bought shares in the company.
In London trading the shares rose 18.8% to 2.375p while in Toronto the shares were up 12.5% at 4.5 cents in lunchtime trading.
COPL holds a 17% working interest in Block LB-13, offshore Liberia, with ExxonMobil the operator holding an 83% working interest.
The company is actively pursuing opportunities in Nigeria in partnership with Shoreline Energy as part of its strategy to generate stable cash flow from secure offshore assets.