By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

SHARES in the Bahamas Petroleum Company jumped 20 per cent yesterday in the wake of the General Election that returned the Progressive Liberal Party to power.

The 2012 election campaign had been a source of anxiety for investors, according to market reports, which pointed to volatility in recent trading.

BPC plc's stocks fell by a fourth of its market value following former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's comments earlier this month that his government would not allow oil drilling or future exploration without additional regulations.

Concerns were heightened after it was revealed that the oil company had links to executive PLP leadership and senior party members.

Prime Minister Perry Christie is a former consultant for the oil company's Bahamian legal team. Mr Christie said he was hired through law firm Davis & Co, run by Deputy Prime Minister Brave Davis.

Former PLP attorney general Sean McWeeney's law firm, Graham Thompson & Co is also listed on the BPC's website, which lists PLP candidate for Killarney Jerome Gomez as its resident manager.

While the party has previously stated that it will pursue oil and natural gas opportunities, Mr Christie told supporters at a rally last week that any decision to drill would be put to a referendum.

The PLP has been historically supportive of explorations for oil and natural gas deposits in the country's territorial waters. While no previous efforts have led to oil findings, local and international interests peaked after a rumoured oil discovery in the 1970s.

In 1992, then-Minister of Trade Mr Christie granted a three-year licence for a California-based oil company to search for oil and gas in northern Bahamas.

In 2002, then-Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller confirmed that several multi-billion-dollar companies were currently engaged in explorations. At that time, Mr Miller told The Tribune that there was a 'very distinct' possibility that oil would be discovered, and explained that high costs and poor technology prohibited extraction efforts during the 1979 oil discovery.

BPC began negotiations with the Christie administration for the necessary approvals to look for oil in 2005. In 2010 - after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - the Ingraham administration placed a moratorium on new oil exploration or drilling licenses.

Earlier this year, BPC stated that it planned to commence drilling on a test well within the year, and no later than April 2013. The company's licences and permits expired last month and were not renewed by the Ingraham-led administration.

In March, former Minister for the Environment Earl Deveaux said proposed amendments to regulations governing oil exploration had been developed, but that it will be up to the next administration to decide whether to address them.

Speaking at his swearing-in ceremony yesterday, Mr Christie downplayed his involvement as a consultant and chastised Mr Ingraham's attempt to insinuate foulplay during the 2012 election campaign.

He said: "I was a consultant to the law firm. This law firm was started by Hubert Ingraham and myself. We brought in Philip Davis, who became effectively the big partner in the firm and doing the legal work. So when I demitted office as Prime Minister, I became a consultant on diverse matters for that firm."

He said Mr Ingraham's attempt to malign his character was totally unacceptable given their long-standing relationship as colleagues and law partners.

Mr Christie added: "Mr Ingraham was really making a mountain out of a mole hill."