The criticism was made in Glasgow by Heinz Rothermumd, managing director of Shell UK Exploration and Production, a partner with British Petroleum in developing the pioneering Foinaven and Schiehallion fields west of Shetland.

Giving the Institute of Petroleum's 1997 celebrity lecture at Strathclyde University, he claimed that opponents of the developments ignored the economic realities of the energy market and overlooked the operational limits of a commercial enterprise.

Greenpeace attacks were accompanied by "the usual exaggerated claims about 'last wilderness' and 'enviromnental wilderness' with emotional references to whales and endangered species".

He admitted, however, that the issues raised a key dilemma over the extent to which new oil and gas supplies should be sought if the atmosphere could not cope with the greenhouse gas from known reserves.