Taxpayers’ money could be channelled directly into North Sea oil exploration under a scheme announced to the industry in Aberdeen on Thursday by Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury.

The promise to give financial support for seismic surveys was one of a number of tax and other benefits proposed by the government in an attempt to halt a collapse in exploration and remedy a fall in production.

The moves were welcomed by the offshore industry but criticised by environmentalists as “environmental and economic illiteracy of the highest order”.

Alexander said it was right to give targeted support to Scotland’s oil and gas industry building on tax reductions and other moves made in the autumn statement on Wednesday.

“We’re incentivising and working with the industry to develop new investment opportunities and support new areas of exploration. This will help ensure that the industry continues to thrive and contribute to the economy,” he explained.

Other North Sea countries including Norway and Holland provide seismic incentives but they are new in the UK.

Mike Tholen, economics and commercial director at lobby group Oil & Gas UK, said the allocation was expected to be a few millions of pounds rather than billions and to be matched by companies. It would be targeted at areas that would otherwise not be explored. “It is small beer financially but it is important because it is government putting its money where its mouth is,” he said.

Friends of the Earth said it was extraordinary that the government was trying to squeeze as much oil out of the North Sea as it could while the international community was trying to agree a plan during world climate talks in Lima, Peru to head off the threat of catastrophic climate change.

Craig Bennett, the organisation’s policy and campaigns director, said: “This is environmental and economic illiteracy of the highest order. Ministers must end their obsession with dirty fossil fuels and build a clean economy for the future based on energy efficiency and the nation’s huge renewable power resources.”